MAX KINGSLEY-JONES / LONDON
Kyrgyz Air, a new Kyrgyzstan private airline, has launched services from its Bishkek base to Moscow and is planning to add more destinations, including points in Europe, as its fleet expands.
The airline put the first of two ex-US Airways Boeing MD-82s into service last month on flights to Moscow Sheremetyevo airport. Kyrgyz Air president Bill Pellew-Harvey says flights to Delhi, Dubai, Istanbul and Urumqi in China will be added when the second MD-82 enters service late next month.
Pellew-Harvey is also president of Vienna-based project finance and investment company Finrep, which has a "substantial holding" in the airline. "We aim to add two longer-haul aircraft by the end of the year - probably Boeing 757s - for non-stop services to western European points such as Amsterdam, London, Munich, Paris and Vienna," he says.
Although Pellew-Harvey says Kyrgyz Air is completely independent from the country's flag carrier Kyrgyzstan Airlines, he declines to comment on whether there are any discussions with the government about taking over some of the established airline's routes.
The MD-80s are initially being flown by Romanian crews, until locally recruited pilots currently being trained take over in six months. Pellew-Harvey says that Boeing is currently in discussions with Russia's interstate aviation committee about certificating the MD-80, until which time the aircraft will be registered in Swaziland.
Source: Flight International
