Okay Airways

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Okay Airways (奥凯航空公司 Aòkǎi Hángkōng Gōngsī) is the People's Republic of China's first privately owned airline. It is 25% owned by Korean Air and is based at Tianjin Binhai International Airport, Tianjin. The airline will initially operate passenger charter services and plans to expand into scheduled passenger and dedicated cargo services.

1 Code Data
2 History
3 Services
4 Fleet
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Code Data

IATA Code: BK
ICAO Code: OKA
Callsign: OKAYJET

[edit] History

Okay Airways was established in June 2004 and in February 2005 received an aviation carrier business licence from the Civil Aviation Administration of China(CAAC). It is China's first private sector airline. The carrier's maiden flight from its base in Tianjin to Changsha was on March 11, 2005 with 72 passengers on board.

Korean Air announced in 2005 that it was negotiating with Okay Airways to establish a joint venture cargo airline in China. Okay Airways is negotiating to lease three Boeing 737-300F aircraft and intends to start cargo services in September or November 2006. ^[1]

[edit] Services

Okay Airways's main route will be Tianjin to Kunming. Other destinations are expected to include Changsha, Chengdu, Guilin, Harbin, Hohhot, Taiyuan and Zhangjiajie (Dayong).

[edit] Fleet

As of August 2006 the Okay Airways fleet includes ^[2] :

2 Boeing 737-800

On 25 February 2005 Boeing announced that Okay Airways had received its first Boeing 737-9B5, becoming the first Chinese airline to operate the largest model of the Boeing 737 family. The airline is sub-leasing 2 Boeing 737-900s from Korean Air. ^{[citation needed]}
These have now been replaced by the two Boeing 737-800 aircraft leased from International Lease Finance. ^[1]