Azur Air

Azur Air

IATA ICAO Callsign ZF AZV AZUR AIR
Founded	1992 (as Katekavia) 17 Dec 2014 (re-branded to Azur Air)
Hubs	Vnukovo International Airport
Subsidiaries	Azur Air Ukraine
Fleet size	32
Headquarters	Moscow, Russia
Key people	Alexander Zosymov, General Director
Website	www.azurair.com

Azur Air (Russian: Азур Эйр), formerly Katekavia and stylised as azurair, is a charter airline and former regional airline in Russia. Initially it was based out of Krasnoyarsk Cheremshanka Airport, the domestic airport serving Krasnoyarsk, and its destinations were all within the Krasnoyarsk Krai.^[1] Nowadays it mainly serves leisure and some domestic destinations.

History[]

Katekavia[]

The airline started operations in 1995 and operates regional flights out of Krasnoyarsk Cheremshanka Airport and Krasnoyarsk-Yemelyanovo Airport.^[2][3] The airline also operates charter services to Siberia and Yakutia. It carried around 122,000 passengers in 2009,^[4] and in 2010 started to acquire larger aircraft, mainly the Tupolev Tu-134. As of 3 April 2014, it had three Tupolev Tu-134s.^[3]

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.^[5]

Azur Air[]

In 2015, Katekavia handed over its fleet to Turukhan Airlines. Katekavia was rebranded as a leisure carrier and renamed Azur Air.^[6][7] In December 2015, it has been confirmed that former owner UTair Aviation sold Azur Air to Turkish tourism company Anex Tourism Group^[8] which also bought Azur Air Ukraine, the former UTair-Ukraine, a few weeks earlier.^[8]

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.^[9] All restrictions by RosAviatsiya and RosTourism were lifted on 20 March 2018 as a result of controls on technical and documental details.^{[citation needed]}

Destinations[]

As of May 2021, Azur Air operates to the following destinations:^[10][11]

Fleet[]

An Azur Air Boeing 777-300ER in the Azur Bear livery

The Azur Air fleet consists of the following aircraft as of June 2021:^[13]

Accidents and incidents[]

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.^[14]

See also[]

• Azur Air (Germany)
• Azur Air Ukraine

References[]

External links[]

Media related to Azur Air at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website