Airline names, what do some of them mean??
 

So I was pondering this question last night as I was trying to fall asleep. There are some airlines that I just don't know what they mean and was wondering if anyone knew off the top of their heads what they meant. And by meaning I mean their translated meaning. Like I know QANTAS means Queensland and Northern Territories Aerial Service but what about:

Lufthansa
Varig
Aer Lingus (what the heck is a Lingus?)

And is Air Tran short for "Air Transportation"? If so, what an ODD name for an airline ;)

Anyway, just being curious is all.

I was able to find this out online.

Lufthansa derives from Luft (the German word for "air") and Hansa (the Hanseatic trade organization that ruled large parts of Northern Europe during the medieval times).
VARIG - Viação Aérea Rio-Grandense SA
Aer Lingus - is an anglicanization of the the Irish form Aer Loingeas which means Air Fleet

El Al means to 'go up.'

KrasAir means.... well, never mind. :)

Specifically, a Hansa was a German trading society. The Hanse in each of several northern German cities that bound together to form the Hanseatic League.

Excellent post. I've often wondered how carriers get names like LOT, Ryanair, Delta, Malev, Fly Niki, Hapag-Lloyd, KLM, TAM and, most of all, Virgin Atlantic (another of Richard Branson's puerile attempts at humor, perhaps?). :)

Any thoughts?

Does someone need to explain Virgin (in all its manifestations)? ;)

KLM means Koninklijke (Nederlandse) Luchtvaart Maatschappij, interestingly translated as Royal Dutch Airlines - literally all it says is Royal Airlines Company' (without the 'Dutch')

What is a Qantas?
What is a Cathay?

See my original post for QANTAS. I think Cathay is possibly a derivative of the word China, or Chinese???? Is that right or am I just making this up (I swear Ive read/heard that somewhere).

"Cathay" is the old term for "China". (Marco Polo, for example, is always talked of as having gone to Cathay.)

"Cathy" is not to be confused with "Cathy", who apparently was the girl Marco was running off to the Far East to escape from.

LOT is Polskie Linie LOTnicze (Polish Airlines)

Like KLM, there's a bunch of LMs about - there used to be NLM (National, I think), ALM (Antillean), and there is currently SLM (Surinamese) and VLM (Flemish).

Virgin Atlantic is just an expansion of Richard Branson's brand that started off with Virgin Records in the days of Tubular Bells.

Niki is owned by Niki Lauda (see also 'Lauda'). I'm pretty sure Ryanair and Hapag-Lloyd are just names.

Malév is 'Magyar Legiforgalmi Vallalat', Hungarian National Airline.

Presumably Delta has something to do with the fact it started in Mississippi?

And, as everyone knows, Alitalia is Always Late In Take-off, Always Late In Arrival :)

COPA (CM) = Compañia Panameña de Aviacion
AVIANCA (AV) = Aerovías Nacionales de Colombia, S.A.
TACA (TA) = Transportes Aereos Centro-Americanos
TAM (JJ) = Transportes Aéreos Meridionais
HOOTERS AIR (H1) = Self Explanatory

Hapag-LLoyd came about from the merger of two German shipping companies in the 70s:

Norddeutsche LLoyd and HAPAG (Hamburg-Amerikanischen Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft - which means as much as Hamburg-American Freight Corporation)

HAPAG has been around since the 1880s I think

THe airline Hapag-LLoyd is just one of the companies belonging to the large TUI corporation.

El Al

Hebrew for "secretly owned by Dovster"

"This is underpressure, and I approved this ad"

and my personal favorite

FAT Air

(Fareastern Air Transport) Taiwan