Omskavia airlines history

The public corporation “Omskavia Airline” was established by means of a transformation of the Omsk State Air Company into the “Omskavia Airline” company in the beginning of the 90s. In 1994 the united flight formation of Omsk was divided into two joint-stock corporations – “Omskavia Airline” and “Omsk Airport”. The “Omskavia” company was finally set up on February 1, 1994.

From the predecessor “Omskavia” inherited small aircrafts (An-24, An-2, and two Mi-2 helicopters) and four old Tu-154B planes (with only two of them in running order). The first airplane of the new Tu-154M model characterized by a low-noise engine and greater fuel economy was bought in 1995, on the credit taken from the regional government. During the next five years, the company sold the two inherited Tu-154B machines and purchased eight Tu-154M planes (one of which used to be owned by president of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega who in his turn received it as a present from Mikhail Gorbachev). The loan was disbursed with the proceeds of the aircraft lease to Iran.

By the beginning of the year 2000, “Omskavia Airline” faced financial woes. The company had large payable accounts. The number of operational aircraft went down to two and the air transportation process was reduced to two regular flights on the route Omsk-Moscow-Omsk.

In 2005, “Omskavia” joined the “AirBridge” alliance which was reformed into “AiRUnion” in summer 2005.

On October 5, 2008, the transportation certificate was withdrawn from the “Omskavia” airline by Federal Air Traffic Agency by reason of large receivable accounts (410 million rubles). The corporation ceased all the flights, passed the passengers over to other carriers, and dismissed the staff for a forced vacation.

On October 15, 2008, Federal Aeronavigation Agency announced its intention to discontinue service of all the flights of the “Omskavia” company due to a considerable backlog for the aeronavigation service (4. 933 million rubles).

July 8, 2009 “Omskavia” was declared bankrupt.