The origins , the founders of the airline, in 1927. Born in Multia, Finland in 1902 and 1905, respectively, brothers Niilo and Valto Karhumäki moved to Jyväskylä where, in late 1924, they estabilished '
Veljekset Karhumäki Oy (Karhumäki brothers), a company which during the 1930s dealt with aircraft maintenance, aerial photography, pilot training, aerial acrobatics. In 1929 high-wing, floats-equipped and two-seats Tiira monoplane was manufactured. In order to start a collaboration with the Finnish Air Force, the company headquarters were moved to Kuorevesi. During World War II the concern activities were merged into the
Valtion Lentokonetehdas company, manufacturer of a number of military aircraft. After the war the two brothers designed the
Karhumäki Karhu 48B light airplane, which was produced in a small number during the 1950s. In June 1950 the company started flying a few domestic schedules. The fleet was limited in numbers and aircraft sizes:
Airspeed AS.40,
DeHavilland DH.89,
Lockheed L-18. All these operations were halted in late 1950s as transferred to the sister company Karhumäki Airways O/Y.
Karhumäki Airways O/Y This Veljekset Karhumäki subsidiary was estabilished in 1951 and started scheduled passenger flights between
Helsinki and
Joensuu,
Jyväskylä,
Vaasa and
Sundsvall. in June of that same year with aircraft made available by the parent company. Then the airline inherited the Lockheed L-18 and, in the second part of 1950s, added four more suitable
Douglas DC-3 and later two more comfortable
Convair CV-440 Metropolitan. The first international flight (to
Stockholm) took place in that same year, followed by flights to
Málaga in coincidence with holiday packages.
Kar-Air O/Y On 1st January 1957 the corporate name was changed to more modern Kar-Air O/Y. Kar-Air encountered financial difficulties when its two CV 440s were damaged in hard landings and had to be taken out of service for a period in 1963. The ownership demanded Kar-Air to cease domestic flying, concentrating on charter flights (mainly to the
Mediterranean) holiday resorts. For this purpose, Aero O/Y handed over two of its
Douglas DC-6 aircraft, which Kar-Air also used for multiple stopover round-the-world flights. By 1965 all scheduled operations had been abandoned and the air carrier concentrated on charter business. Three DC-6s were already in the fleet and it was deliberated to convert one of them to swing-tail configuration. The work was accomplished by
Sabena engineering department in Brussels. After the conversion the four-engined aircraft could carry loads of up to 18 metres long or six pallets 108x88, for a maximum payload of 11,5 tons. It flew several schedules to United Kingdom (London and Manchester) and to Germany (Frankfurt and Düsseldorf) on Finnair behalf. Two other Douglas DC 6s were frequently operated to transport Finnish contingent to UNO peace-keeping detachments while DC 3s mainly performed aerial survey works. The DC-6s were the backbone of the passenger fleet until 1968, when the jet age arrived with the introduction of a 189-seat
Douglas DC-8 series 62, instrumental in operating long haul flights. Also in 1968 a
De Havilland of Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter was added to the fleet. In this same year, the airline underwent a rebranding, being known as
Karair, also styled
KarAir henceforth. Over the following years, Karair reduced its fleet, because charter contracts with Finnair terminated.
The last years In 1986, two
Airbus A300 wide-body airliners joined the fleet, again leased from Finnair and intended exclusively for charter flights. Finnair's plans with the subsidiary changed from 1989, when the first of seven
ATR 72 regional turboprop airliner was added to the fleet, and the A300s in turn left the following year. From then, scheduled passenger flights, both domestically and to the neighbour nations, on behalf of Finnair were operated. On 3 February 1989, Finnair bought further shares to hold a total of 90% of the Karair ownership, which was further increased to 97.6% in 1993. These times were characterized by financial problems because of the
recession of the early 1990s, which led to Finnair announcing a full take-over of Karair in December 1995. Karair had started integrating its operations into the flag carrier in September 1990. Karair fleet and operations were progressively merged into Finnair, a move which was fully accomplished in October 1996. In 2002, a court deemed the take-over illegal, and Finnair was forced to salvage the remaining Karair stocks. ==Destinations==