Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Stellar Airways


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   delete. While it appears the airline was at least planned to exist, and the photograph doesn't appear to be a photoshop, there seems to be consensus that we cannot verify that it ever operated. If sources turn up that it operated on a scheduled route (and thus is notable), ping me and I can undelete. The Bushranger One ping only 03:37, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

Stellar Airways

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Reason Monopoly31121993 (talk) 15:02, 27 April 2014 (UTC) I have listed various reasons on this article's talk page. I think it's a fake airline and none of the links listed work. This seems very similar to another fake Congolese airline I found last week called Skyfly airlines.
 * Delete: Not sure if it was a hoax from the start but it fails notability. Article created by a retired user after a name change. No working references and a Google search returns nothing of note. Philg88 ♦talk 16:22, 27 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Automated comment: This AfD was not correctly transcluded to the log (step 3). I have transcluded it to Articles for deletion/Log/2014 April 27.  — cyberbot I  Notify Online 15:17, 27 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Delete I did some checking and there is nothing reliable out there. Even the company web site url http://stellarairways.com on the FlightGlobal blog post has nothing of relevance on it. The Aviation Safety network went as far as to ban it from EU airspace in 2011: http://aviation-safety.net/database/operator/airline.php?var=9211 so maybe it technically existed back then, who knows. Probably another scam, certainly non-notable. &mdash; Cheers, Steelpillow (Talk) 17:51, 27 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Delete certainly existed as images of CS-TQS exist in Stellar scheme if you search, it was flown to Congo to start a wet-lease on 30 October 2011 but appears to have returned to Lisbon on 12 November. No evidence that any services were actually flown so not really notable. MilborneOne (talk) 08:28, 28 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Comment: Based on what I found in the wayback machine, they did have a timetable and their website was still up in April 2012 (check date of "weekly timetable") May 2012 (check date of "Contact Us" link) - Are there cases of airlines not flying still maintaining websites? Maybe some French-speaking editors can help us here... WhisperToMe (talk) 09:20, 28 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Comment - Did a search on flightglobal.com and this says it "began operations" with a leased A320:
 * Gubisch, Michael. "Congolese start-up Stellar leases A320 from White Airways." Flight Global. 9 November 2011. - I'll see what I can find
 * WhisperToMe (talk) 08:51, 28 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Comment: I'm also able to get archives of the official website from the Wayback Machine so combined with the post here I think the airline is real. Also I found a YouTube clip of a French-language (I guess Congolese) news broadcast about the airline: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmLooHBOBfg - Hopefully some French language newspapers will talk about it WhisperToMe (talk) 08:55, 28 April 2014 (UTC)
 * The TV broadcast line stated "Digital Congo Le Journal" so I'll check archives of the website to see if they have any articles. I will certainly vote keep if/when I find one more article (other than the one by Michael Gubisch) WhisperToMe (talk) 09:18, 28 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I did a site search for http://www.digitalcongo.net (which has Congolese news articles) but I haven't found anything... WhisperToMe (talk) 09:33, 28 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Africa-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 12:33, 28 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Aviation-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 12:33, 28 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Business-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 12:34, 28 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Transportation-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 12:34, 28 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Delete - With images like this It's obvious the airline does exist ....Just isn't notable. →Davey 2010→  →Talk to me!→  12:50, 28 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Comment: It may help to state why it's not notable. Flight Global did write an article on the airline starting operations, but I do want to see if Congolese newspapers say anything about the airline. WhisperToMe (talk) 13:28, 28 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Comment:I think what we've found is that the airline, if it ever DID exist, only existed for a very short while (days).WhisperToMe, thank you again for your help on this and there is one new thing that I think is also noteworthy: The French Wikipedia page, which WhisperToMe, you created, probably back when you were editing the English version of the page is almost non-existant which is strange considering Congo is a French speaking country. I would suggest also nominating that page for deletion as well and I'm not sure if it's possible to do the same for the one created in Bahasa Indonesian because it was created by a user who is now banned (Pengguna:Aldo samulo).Monopoly31121993 (talk) 15:52, 28 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Comment: It may be good to wait for the decision on EN. Anyway, the thing about the DRC is that it is officially a Francophone country but it is very poor and has low internet access. I don't know what % of DRC citizens actually speak French or how many have internet access. On the French Wikipedia the vast majority of editors are from France. WhisperToMe (talk) 16:13, 28 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Comment: It seems the company and management were an offshoot of Stellar Aviation Solutions Pvt Ltd, out of New Delhi, which was still around in 2013. The president is the same for both. LeadSongDog come howl!  19:13, 29 April 2014 (UTC)
 * If I can get sources about the parent company, should they count towards this article? WhisperToMe (talk) 05:24, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Perhaps, if they refer to the DRC company, but they might also support an extended article, moved to address the parent. It depends on what the sources say.LeadSongDog come howl!  06:44, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I don't see any mentions to "Stellar Airways" on the "stellar Aviation Consultancy" webpage (http://www.stellar-aviation.com/services.html). As far as I can tell this is just a consultancy group based in India run by two former airline employees, not a parent company of any airlines. This seems pretty clear, the airline almost certainly never operated flights, never actually possessed an airplane and certainly didn't operate most or any of the routes they claim to on the Wikipedia pages here. I stick to the theory that this is a fake airline just like the Congolese SkyFly Airlines whose Wikipedia presence was simply designed to fool naive investors into lending them money which they used to get a leasing company to paint a plane they never delivered and put a few photos on the internet to make it seem real. It's possibly this was an Indian scam but I think it's clear it was a scam.Monopoly31121993 (talk) 08:09, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Often when there is a fake airline there are sources giving accusations of it. For instance Metis Transpacific Airlines pretty much was a scam airline and there are sources covering the scam itself (including one from a local news station in the US). Should I ask a French speaking editor to watch the Congolese news broadcast? Maybe that can clarify some things and give clues on whether there would be more sources or where we could find them: Reference_desk/Language and fr:Wikipédia:Bistro_des_non-francophones - Whenever there is a deletion query that is likely to concern another language it's good to reach out to speakers of that language to get more information WhisperToMe (talk) 15:31, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Re-post from the French Wikipedia fr:Wikipédia:Bistro_des_non-francophones:
 * "The video says : « A new airline companie just been launches in RDC, 'Stellar Airways', whose first aircraft arrived in Congo not long ago [...]. The official lauch ceremony took place in the town of La Gombe. [...] It will fly 5 city : Kisangani, Mbujimayi, Goma, Lubumbashi and Kinshasa »
 * After that it's just communication message from the company.
 * So they just received their first aircraft, and probably haven't made the first commercial fligth when this was broadcasted. I don't know the date tough.
 * It seams to be Digital Congo TV ; their website is in French and English.
 * As most French people I have very little knowledge of Congo soI have no idea if you can rely on that chanel.
 * Zebulon84 (discuter) 30 avril 2014 à 18:25 (CEST)
 * So I'll search for archives of that website to see if it reports anything. In the case of Metis it was discovered to be fraud, but here... there may just be so much of a lack of published info that it can't make Wikipedia:V
 * WhisperToMe (talk) 04:10, 1 May 2014 (UTC)
 * More stuff from Reference_desk/Language
 * "I watched the video; it's too long to transcribe now but the gist is about the launch of Stellar Airways in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The airline started with one A320 aircraft, and planned seven routes serving Goma, Kinshasa, Kisangani, and two or three cities whose names I cannot make out. The broadcast seems to be from Digital Congo, which doesn't have an English Wikipedia article but which can be found on French Wikipedia - EronTalk 21:20, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
 * "To begin, the airline planned to serve five cities. The two other cities are Lubumbashi and Mbuji-Mayi. — AldoSyrt (talk) 09:55, 1 May 2014 (UTC)"
 * WhisperToMe (talk) 11:57, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
 * - I find it very strange that there was a TV broadcast from Digital Congo, and yet I can't find any written articles about Stellar Airways on its official website: http://www.digitalcongo.net/ - there are still articles from around 2011 that are there. I'll see if I can e-mail the people at Digital Congo. WhisperToMe (talk) 11:59, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.