Futura Air, which has its headquarters in Palma, is 85 per cent owned by Aer Lingus, and carried two million holidaymakers last year.
The charter-only airline uses only Boeing 737 aircraft such as the one involved in the incident on Sunday, and operates from Palma, Tenerife and Malaga.
It operates 13 aircraft during the summer and 11 in the winter and flies from Spain to the UK, the Republic and Scandinavia. The airline also operates within Spain.
Aer Lingus bought into the company in 1989 and the 15 per cent not owned by the Irish State company is owned by a number of Spanish individuals.
The airline is said to be profitable, though details are not given in the annual reports of Aer Lingus. In the most recent Aer Lingus annual report, for 1998, Futura Air is said to have had "a good year's trading".
The move into the Irish market in recent years of UK tour operators has led to Futura Air conducting more business here. The chief executive of the company, Mr Michael Meagher, took up the position last year and previously worked as head of cargo in Aer Lingus.
Maintenance of the Futura aircraft is carried out by FLS Aerospace, formerly TEAM Aer Lingus, based at Dublin Airport. Most of the airline's pilots are Spanish.
