Azur Air

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Azur Air (Template:Lang-ru), formerly Katekavia and stylised as azurair, is a charter airline and former regional airline in Russia. Initially it was based in Krasnoyarsk Cheremshanka Airport, the domestic airport serving Krasnoyarsk, and its destinations were all within Krasnoyarsk Krai.<ref name="krasnoyarsk2">Template:Cite web</ref> Nowadays it mainly serves leisure destinations such as the route Moscow to Bodrum, offering an All-Business class charter.<ref name="Lujo Black Jet">Template:Cite web</ref>

History

Katekavia

The airline started operations in 1995 and operates regional flights out of Krasnoyarsk Cheremshanka Airport and Krasnoyarsk-Yemelyanovo Airport.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="flightglobal1">Template:Cite web</ref> The airline also operates charter services to Siberia and Yakutia. It carried around 122,000 passengers in 2009,Template:Cn and in 2010 started to acquire larger aircraft, mainly the Tupolev Tu-134. As of 3 April 2014, it had three Tupolev Tu-134s.<ref name="flightglobal1"/>

In April 2014, the airline commenced scheduled flights between larger Krasnoyarsk-Yemelyanovo Airport and further cities in Siberia: Surgut and Tomsk. The airline received international media and social media attention in 2014, when a video emerged of passengers on a scheduled flight from Igarka to Krasnoyarsk disembarking pre-departure to push their plane in temperatures of minus 52 degrees Celsius after its chassis froze.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Azur Air

In 2015, Katekavia handed over its fleet to Turukhan Airlines. Katekavia was rebranded as a leisure carrier and renamed Azur Air.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In February 2018, the Russian aviation authority RosAviatsiya announced that Azur Air faces a suspension of its operational licence by 20 March 2018 if the carrier does not resolve alleged safety violations by then. As this would lead to the shut down of all flight operations, Russian tourism agency RosTourism advised tour operators to not sell tickets on Azur Air for the time being.<ref>ch-aviation.com - Russia's tourism body warns against selling Azur Air tickets 27 February 2018</ref>

On 8 April 2022, the US Department of Commerce restricted flights on aircraft manufactured in the US for Aeroflot, Aviastar, Azur Air, Belavia, Rossiya and Utair. It seems the US wants to reclaim ownership of the intellectual property.<ref name="usbroad"/> On 16 June, the US broadened its restrictions on the six airlines after violations of the sanctions regime were detected. The effect of the restrictions is to ground the US-manufactured part of its fleet.<ref name="usbroad">Template:Cite news</ref>

As of July 2022, Azur Air was forced to drastically reduce its international network due to sanctions against Russia as well as the recall of several aircraft by their lessors in accordance with these.<ref>aerotelegraph.com - "Azur Air forced to ground half its fleet" (German) 1 July 2022</ref>

Fleet

File:VP-BLV (30089109453).jpg

Azur Air Boeing 757-200

File:Azur Air, VQ-BEN, Boeing 767-33A ER (49560895273).jpg

Azur Air Boeing 767-300ER

Current fleet

The Azur Air fleet consists of the following aircraft as of January 2024:<ref name="fleet">Template:Cite web</ref>

Aircraft	In service	Orders	Passengers			Notes
			C	Y	Total
Boeing 757-200	8	—	—	238	238
	1		72	—	72	1 equipped in all-business class configuration.<ref name="fleet"/>
Boeing 767-300ER	6	—	—	336	336
Boeing 777-300ER	1	—	7	524	531
Total	16	—

Former fleet

Azur Air additionally formerly operated the following aircraft types:<ref name="fleet"/>

• Boeing 737-800
• Boeing 737-900ER

Accidents and incidents

File:Katekavia Flight 9357 crash site (from MAK report).jpg

Crash site of Katekavia Flight 9357

• On 3 August 2010, a Katekavia Antonov An-24 crashed on approach to Igarka Airport, killing twelve people. The crash was caused by pilot error. As a result of the crash, the Russian government started to investigate how Katekavia operated their flights.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• In January 2023, a Boeing 757 with flight registration RA-73071 and flight number AZV2463 from Perm, Russia, to Goa, India, was affected by an e-mail bomb threat causing it to be diverted to Termez Airport in Uzbekistan for inspection while flying over Pakistan airspace. The threat was eventually determined to be false and the flight, which carried 238 passengers including two infants and seven crew members, was allowed to continue to its destination. This incident followed a bomb threat against a flight from Moscow to Goa which led to an emergency landing at Jamnagar airport in Gujarat.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The perpetrator's name was "Zoe Lurking Spychologist Hamilton".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• On 5 February 2023, a Boeing 767 with flight number ZF3774 from Phuket, Thailand, to Krasnoyarsk, Russia, aborted take-off after the aircraft's tire exploded.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

• Official website