ASL Airlines Brand Guidelines: Air Bridge Carriers 1972, Air Contractors & a 2015 Rename

Fresh produce, awkward loads and a move to Ireland.

The airline now called ASL Airlines Ireland did not start in Ireland, or as Air Contractors. English Wikipedia and the group’s own history page both trace it to Air Bridge Carriers, formed in the United Kingdom in 1972; Wikipedia places its start at East Midlands Airport. ASL’s history says the first fleet was four Armstrong Whitworth Argosy freighters flying fresh produce from the Channel Islands, soon joined by ad-hoc charters for what it calls “awkward loads,” such as aircraft engines and heavy machinery for the North Sea oil fields. A Vickers Merchantman followed in 1976, and by the early 1980s, the company says, TNT, FedEx, DHL and UPS were all nightly customers of its overnight parcel flights.

The airline was later bought by the Hunting Group, which added Boeing 727 and Lockheed Electra aircraft, most of them on the Irish register, according to ASL. In September 1992 Hunting rebranded its subsidiaries and Air Bridge became Hunting Cargo Airlines, Wikipedia says. All its operations moved to Ireland in 1997, the year the first Airbus A300-B4 joined the fleet.

In June 1998 Hunting sold its aviation businesses, and the airline went to a consortium of the Belgian shipping group Compagnie Maritime Belge and South Africa’s Safair, then part of the Imperial Group. The new owners renamed it Air Contractors in July 1998, ASL says. Safair brought a second root: the group dates its history to 1970, when Safmarine acquired Tropair in South Africa and renamed it Safair Freighters.

One name for a group of airlines.

The ASL name came out of a string of purchases. In 2007 the Imperial Group passed its aviation holdings to 3P Air Freighters, and on 14 March 2008 Air Contractors acquired the French carrier Europe Airpost, which flew postal and passenger services, English Wikipedia says. The holding company was then given a single identity, ASL Aviation Group, formally set up in June 2008; Wikipedia explains the letters as its three core activities: Airlines, Support and Leasing. The Swiss Farnair Group joined in December 2014.

On 4 June 2015 the group announced that its European airlines would share one brand. Air Contractors became ASL Airlines Ireland, Europe Airpost became ASL Airlines France, and Farnair Switzerland and Farnair Hungary became ASL Airlines Switzerland and ASL Airlines Hungary, according to Wikipedia and the company. In May 2016 ASL bought the airline operations of TNT Express, TNT Airways in Belgium and Pan Air in Spain, during FedEx’s purchase of TNT; they became ASL Airlines Belgium and ASL Airlines Spain. Simple Flying wrote in 2023 that the Belgian airline’s 737 freighters work with FedEx in Europe while its 747 freighters fly worldwide.

The holding company was renamed ASL Aviation Holdings in 2017. In 2018 ASL Airlines Spain closed and the Swiss airline was folded into ASL Airlines Ireland, the group says; Wikipedia dates the end of Swiss flying to 1 February 2018. A United Kingdom airline was launched in 2021, and in 2023 ASL bought the Australian charter airline Pionair and renamed it ASL Airlines Australia. STAT Times reported in September 2026 that the Bankstown-based airline had taken its third Boeing 737-800BCF, ferried from Shannon to Brisbane, and had flown trans-Tasman cargo for FedEx since late September 2025.

How cargo airlines present themselves.

A cargo airline sells something its customers rarely see: space in the dark of a main deck. Its identity therefore lives on the outside of the aircraft. A freighter has few or no cabin windows, so the fuselage reads as one long, clean surface, and the tail becomes the main signature. Across the category, tails are painted in strong, simple fields of red, blue, orange or grey that can be recognised from an apron or a ramp camera at a distance, with the name in large capitals along the side.

The aircraft themselves are part of the message. Freighter operators name their types openly, and widebody freighters such as the Boeing 747-8F and 777F are presented as capability rather than decoration: the nose door of a 747, the main-deck side door, the number of pallet positions. Fleet lists, with types, counts and specification sheets, sit near the top of many cargo airline websites, often next to the next aircraft on order.

The network is shown as a map. A hub sits at the centre, and lines run out to gateways on several continents, sometimes with the road-feeder trucks that carry freight on from the airport drawn in as well. Schedules are published as downloadable timetables, because the reader is usually a freight forwarder planning a booking rather than a traveller.

The rest of the visual language comes from the cargo. Pages on special cargo, from live animals and fresh produce to pharmaceuticals, dangerous goods and outsized machinery, each get their own name and photograph. Charter pages show unusual loads, and partner pages name the logistics companies and shippers for which aircraft are flown. For a designer, the category is a study in practical identity: few elements, large scale, and a register built for operations staff, not for passengers.

Flying for other people’s brands.

Ownership changed again in 2019. In February, ASL says, the private equity firm STAR Capital Partnership agreed to buy the business from its shareholders, Compagnie Maritime Belge with 51% and 3P Air Freighters with 49%; the deal closed on 4 June 2019, and STAR Capital became the sole shareholder, according to the company and English Wikipedia. The group is headquartered in Swords, County Dublin.

Much of ASL’s flying happens under other companies’ names. Its Irish airline says it flies narrowbody and widebody freighters for express integrators including FedEx, DHL and UPS and for online retailers including Amazon, from Dublin, with a light maintenance hangar at Shannon, crew bases in ten European countries and more than 50 regular destinations across Europe, North America and Asia. Wikipedia describes the group’s work as ACMI and charter cargo services on behalf of express integrators and online retailers.

The fleet has shifted towards converted Boeing 737s. At the Paris Air Show in June 2021 ASL ordered up to 20 737-800BCF converted freighters, ten firm and ten options, and added 20 more in March 2022, Wikipedia says; the group’s history page says it flies more of that type than any other operator. Its fleet page also lists ATR 72 turboprops, Airbus A330 freighters and Boeing 747-400 freighters, and in August 2026 the company said it had completed the purchase of two leased 747-400ERF aircraft flown by ASL Airlines Belgium.

The group has also agreed to leave one business. On 10 February 2026 ASL announced the sale of its interest in the South African low-cost airline FlySafair to Harith General Partners, subject to regulatory approvals including the South African Competition Commission; FlightGlobal reported the same month that the fund was to acquire the airline. The sale was announced in February 2026 and completion is not confirmed at the time of writing. STAT Times reported in September 2026 that ASL Airlines Australia had a conditional agreement to buy the Australian and New Zealand freight business of Airwork Group, still subject to due diligence and regulatory conditions.

For a design guide, ASL Airlines shows how a cargo group can gather several national airlines, each with its own past name, under one short set of initials, while much of its daily flying carries a customer’s brand rather than its own; compare FedEx and DHL, two of its customers. For this guide we use night navy, hangar blue, a pale sky blue and cloud grey with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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