A third airline adventure from the men behind TEA and EBA/VEX, CityBird had different ambitions at first but history would soon repeat itself as the airline billed as "The Flying Dream" began to have nightmares...

Formed from the ashes of Trans European Airways, EuroBelgian Airlines would morph into Virgin Express, becoming Belgium's second largest airline until they were merged into the incumbent flag carrier to become Brussels Airlines.

Formed as a scrappy charter carrier based in Belgium in the 1970s, TEA grew to form the first pan-European airline with subsidiaries in France, Turkey, Italy and the UK. Their overexpansion would be their downfall with the airline collapsing at the dawn of the 1990s.

A Christmas holiday special episode of Grounded.

Previously known as Casino Express, Xtra Airways (later XTRAirways) operated a fleet of 737s on executive charter work as well as some contract work. After several ups and downs they were acquired and used to form the basis of new airline, Avelo Airlines.

Founded specially to operate gaming charters taking gamblers to casinos, Casino Express would go on to operate ad-hoc executive charters as well as provide aircraft operations for Tahoe Air before moving fully into executive charters and rebranding as Xtra Airways. 

Founded in 1989 and headquartered on the Balearic Island of Mallorca as a joint venture between the Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus, Banco Santander and several other parties. Futura would operate a large fleet of Boeing 737s including the 737-400 and 737-800 as well as become the first European operator of the Boeing 737-900ER beating the UK's XL Airways to the title by mere days with both airlines collapsing within days of each other...

KTHY, otherwise known as Kibris Türk Hava Yollari or Cyprus Turkish Airlines. The de-facto "flag carrier" of the occupied north of the island, KTHY was a part state-owned airline operating flights to various destinations across Europe, with the caveat that all flights must operate via the Turkish mainland. The requirement to operate via the mainland was a big "ball and chain" for KTHY and the airline eventually collapsed into bankruptcy leaving North Cyprus without an airline of its own...

Helios Airways was founded in 1999 as the first independently owned airline in the country, Helios would operate a mix of charter and scheduled flights from across Europe to Cyprus. The airline would sadly be mostly remembered for the crash of Helios Flight 522, aka "The Ghost Flight" which crashed in 2005. Following the tragedy Helios would rebrand as Ajet but despite their best efforts could not shake the ghost of Flight 522 and would cease operations towards the end of 2006.

Established by the state owned flag carrier Cyprus Airways, Eurocypria were a leisure airline with a mission to bring more tourists to the island nation. Having begun with a fleet of Airbus A320s Eurocypria would eventually split from Cyprus Airways and after a few rough years things took a turn for the worse with their rescue package being opposed by the European Commission which ultimately saw Eurocypria Grounded, permanently

CelebAir was a short lived "reality TV" programme broadcast on ITV2 during the autumn of 2008. The show, which featured 11 celebrities "working" for an airline involved Monarch Airlines, one of the UK's oldest and most respected carriers, who in a fit of madness let them use one of their Airbus A321s for the debacle...

This is a sort of hybrid between an episode of "Grounded" and a trip report, it looks at my first day in the air as cabin crew. Based at Bristol, working for Excel Airways and flying on an Islandsflug 737-400 it was an eventful first day ;)

Ports of Call (later known as Skyworld), formed as part of the Ports of Call Travel Club the company operated air charter services for it's travel club members. With flights across North and South America the company would later operate worldwide trips using it's Convair 990 and Boeing 707 jets.

Episode 50 of Grounded takes a look at an airline very close to my heart, Islandsflug, also known as Icebird Airlines. This small Icelandic airline formed through the merger of a flight school and a tiny regional airline to become one of Europe's largest ACMI carriers, operating aircraft on behalf of numerous airlines across Europe including Excel Airways, Jet2, Aviajet, Blueline, Ryanair and Air Miles. They would eventually be absorbed into Air Atlanta Icelandic during 2005 

Brymon Airways, a regional airline which began operations in the South West of England and went on to become form central part of the UK's largest commuter airline. The Brymon Story has lots of twists and turns, skirting bankruptcy in their early years and seeing rescue from an unlikely saviour, a failed merger and successful de-merger, many profitable years under new ownership and finally forming a large part of a commuter network puzzle so grab a brew and sit down and enjoy the Brymon story...

ir Atlanta operated a fleet of Boeing 727s from Atlanta to various destinations across the United States including Miami, Orlando, New York, Memphis and Greensboro. Founded by local lawyer, Michael Hollis, Air Atlanta was the first airline in the USA to be largely owned and operated by minorities. Air Atlanta offered a business class level of service at a coach fare, taking to the skies in spring 1984 and collapsing three years later in 1987.

Most well remembered for their Simpsons logojet, Western Pacific operated a fleet of Boeing 737s initially from Colorado Springs but later moved to Denver.

The first episode of "Grounded" looked at Excalibur Airways, a very promising independent charter airline which following a takeover and mismanagement ended up grounded for good.