Three months after it was forced by the Russian security police to close its cargo operations, Eastline has resumed these flights.
The Moscow Domodedovo-based airline is operating charter services to Western Europe and the United Arab Emirates, and is poised to restart services to China, its principal market. General director Amiran Kurtanidze says the China delay was due to the need to rebuild contacts lost following the closure of services.
The closure of Russia's third largest airline in October followed FSB allegations that the airline carried contraband, and that it regularly flew substantially over the permitted maximum weight (Flight International, 10-16 October).
Eastline has not allowed the problems to stop development. It has used the time to concentrate on building up its passenger services, which have increased about threefold in the three months. It will carry about 150,000 passengers in 2000, a level that should leave it at number 20 in the rating for the country's airlines.
Source: Flight International
