Air Moldova

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Air Moldova

IATA 9U	ICAO MLD	Callsign Air Moldova^[1]
Founded		1993
Hubs		Chişinău International Airport
Fleet size		10
Destinations		12
Parent company		Government of Moldova
Headquarters		Chişinău
Key people
Website: http://www.airmoldova.md

Air Moldova is an airline based in Chişinău, Moldova. It is the national airline of Moldova and operates scheduled services to destinations in Europe. Its main base is Chişinău International Airport.

1 History
2 Services
3 Fleet
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

The airline was established and started operations in 1993 on the basis of the local Aeroflot unit. It is 100% owned by the Republic of Moldova.

In 2001 Air Moldova leased Embraer 120 and 145 jets. It took delivery of its second Airbus A320 in February 2004. The last Tupolev Tu-154B ER-85285 was destroyed on July 5, 2006. The 2 Yakovlev Yak-42 went back to Russia in late 2003 and 2004. In 2003 the aircraft livery and the corporate logo were changed. On July 13, 2004 Air Moldova became an IATA member. On December 15, 2004 Air Moldova started its frequent flyer programme, Air Moldova Club.

Out of 343,000 air passengers in 2005 in Moldova, 251,800 were transported by Air Moldova.

In November 2006 93.1 million Moldovian Lei (about 6 Million Euro) were transferred from the 2006 state budget to Air Moldova. With anouther 9 million Lei taken from a bank one of the two Airbus 320 will be bought. The opposition has doubts about the transparency of this deal. [[1]]

[edit] Services

Air Moldova operates services to the following international scheduled destinations (at August 2006): Athens, Bucharest, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Kiev Larnaca, Lisbon, Moscow, Paris (starts December 12, 2006), Prague, Rome and Vienna. In summer regular charter flights to Antalya take place.

Air Moldova discontinued its services to Amsterdam, Bishkek, Dnepropetrovsk and Madrid.

[edit] Fleet

The Air Moldova fleet includes the following aircraft (at October 2006):

2 Airbus A320-200 – since 21 September 2003 and 16 February 2004
1 Antonov An-24 registration ER-46508 (used for the Kiev flight)
1 Antonov An-26 registration ER-46685 and 47698
1 Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia – first since 12 October 2001, the 2nd flew only between 23 April 2004 and 26 March 2005 for Air Moldova
4 Tupolev Tu-134A^[2] – registrations ER-65094, 65140, 65707 and 65791 (also used by government)
1 Yakovlev Yak-40 – registration ER-YGD (government aircraft, sometimes used by MLD)

Fights are mainly operated with the Airbus and Embraer aircraft. When one of the Airbuses is in maintenance, has a serious delay or is assigned to charter flights, a Tupolev Tu-134 operates the Moscow and Istanbul flights. The Yak-40 replaces the Embraer 120 (e.g. to Prague or Vienna) when that aircraft is in maintenance.