Debonair was a British airline headquartered at London Luton Airport offering flights to and from Spain, France, Germany and Italy. It ceased operations in October 1999 due to financial difficulties.^[3]

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Debonair

IATA ICAO Callsign 2G DEB DEBONAIR
Commenced operations	19 June 1996
Ceased operations	1 October 1999
Hubs	London Luton Airport
Frequent-flyer program	Destinations
Fleet size	13 (at closure)
Traded as	Easdaq component
Headquarters	146 Prospect Way, London Luton Airport, Luton, Bedfordshire, LU2 9BA [1]
Key people	Franco Mancassola (CEO) Michael Harrington (Deputy CEO) Silvio Petrassi (General Manager) [2]
Employees	480 (at closure)
Website	http://www.debonair.co.uk/

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Debonair was founded in 1996 by Franco Mancassola who had previously worked for Continental Airlines, and founded Discovery Airways in Hawaii.^[4] Debonair's first flights took off on June 19, with weekday daily flights to Munich, Dusseldorf and Barcelona from London Luton Airport.^[5] From July, Debonair also added a Madrid route alongside Newcastle and Copenhagen, and later in November a direct London Luton to Rome flight.^[6][7]

It floated shares on the Easdaq in September 1997 and raised $41.9m.^[8] By mid-1998, the airline was on a heavy cost-cutting strategy which was beginning to slow the losses compared with the year prior.^[9] Although at the same time, Debonair sought to introduce special services for its frequent flyer programme including fast track boarding and inclusive meals onboard and on some routes its 'ABC - Affordable Business Class' product.^[10][11] Debonair appealed to business travellers, who made up 58 perecent of its passengers by 1998.^[12] In late 1998, Debonair entered a working relationship with Lufthansa, leasing five aircraft for their CityLine operations from Munich. Whilst the aircraft were in Lufthansa colours, the flights were operated by Debonair staff.^[13] Debonair also entered a similar agreement with Swissair who were launching their Express brand to operate a BAE 146 on their behalf from Zurich to Venice and Bologna.^[14] Debonair also maintained a codeshare agreement with AB Airlines, which resulted in the lease of a Boeing 737-300 from January 1999 remaining in service until Debonair's operations ended.^[15]

On 1 October 1999 the airline's shares were suspended, and the following day the operations of Debonair were grounded following a court ruling to appoint Deloitte as administrators.^{[16][17][18][19]} At the time of closure, the airline had just embarked on a new national advertising campaign, which was pulled from the media at the last minute. However, some advertising made it onto London Underground trains.^[20] Following the closure of Debonair, founder Mancassola was critical of British Airways subsidiary Go as a cause for the airlines demise.^[21]

At the time of closure, the Debonair fleet consisted of the following aircraft:

• List of defunct airlines of the United Kingdom