SAIR AVIATION: United States (1979-1980). Sair Aviation, the FBO at Syracuse, New York, establishes a scheduled airline division in 1979 to provide international passenger and cargo flights to Toronto and Ottawa. Although daily Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain roundtrips are duly inaugurated, they cannot be maintained beyond 1980.
SAKHAAVIANATIONALAIR COMPANY: Gagarina 8, Yakutsk, Yakutsk Zone, 677014, Russia; Phone 7 (41122) 27 085; Fax 7 (41122) 25 489; Http://www. yakutia. ru/win/SakhaAvia/sod/html; Code K7; Year Founded 1995. In 1995, financially troubled Yakutavi-atrans Air Company receives a corporate makeover. Yuri A. Oblan is CEO and he continues to provide service to the Yakutsk region of Siberia with the large fleet that once made up an entire division of Aeroflot Soviet Airlines.
An An-12BP with 7 crew and 3 passengers departs Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport on February 24, 1996, on a service to Yakutsk via Omsk and Bratsk. At a point 22 km. NW of Omsk, the aircraft suffers fuel exhaustion and makes a forced landing onto a snow-covered field, during which a wingtip hits an automobile. The aircraft is badly damaged, the car is totally destroyed, but there are no fatalities.
Services are continued during the remainder of the year and in 1997. By 1998, CEO Oblan’s all-Russian fleet comprises 5 Tupolev Tu-154Ms, 6 Tu-154Bs, 21 Antonov An-24s, 15 An-12s, 6 An-26s, 1 each An-74, An-2, and Let L-410, 4 Ilyushin Il-76TDS, and 1 each Mil Mi-8 and Mi-2 helicopter.
Just after takeoff from Krasnoyarsk on a service to the Siberian town of Mirny on June 1, an An-12 with seven crew, six passengers and 13 tons of foodstuffs, crashes 25 km. from its point of origin and explodes; there are no survivors.
Under a national plan of consolidation, Diamond Sakha Airlines is merged into Sakha Avia later in the year.
The Russian currency crisis that begins in August and the escalating rise in the price of aviation fuel have a devastating impact on the airline.
The carrier, now overextended, is forced to declare bankruptcy early in 1999. Leaders of the local airport authority step forward and offer a plan to create a new airline built around the Sakha Avia fleet. The new company with the old name is duly formed and equipped with the combined fleets of its predecessors: 2 Airbus Industrie A310-324s, 15 Tu-154B-1s, 13 Yak 40s, 17 An-12s, 22 An-24B/RVs, 6 An-26s, 1 An-74, 4 Il-76TDs, and 1 each Mil Mi-8 and Mi-2 helicopters. A regional aircraft wing, equipped with Let L-410s and 8 Mi-8s, is based at Magan Airport. One of the Tu-154Bs is leased to Iran and five Mi-8s are overhauled.
Late in the year, it is reported that all existing An-24s will soon be outdated. Plans are made to reequip with up to 10 of the new An-140s to be built at the Aviakor manufacturing plant in Samara.
As the year ends, the company is forced to abandon its flights to Moscow and Khabarovsk. Scheduled services are, however, maintained from Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, and St. Petersburg.
For the principal airline of Sakhia, which is located between Turkestan and North Asia, services must continue on a reduced basis at the beginning of 2000. In January, the carrier returns to state control.
Many of the aircraft in the fleet are now parked, including the entire Tu-154B fleet, while the A310-324s are returned to their lessor. A number of the company’s activities in the northern part of the region are now assumed by the new Yakutiya Airlines.
New direct An-24 flights to Ust-Mai are introduced on June 28. Scheduled service is resumed to Moscow.
The Sakha government continues to build up a tremendous debt with the airline, as do agencies of the Russian government in Moscow. Sakha Avia continues to operate in late summer and fall despite the necessity of defaulting on its fuel debt payments to the region’s primary avgas supplier, AeroportGSMservice. Weekly An24B charters are initiated on October 29 from the Russian island of Kunashir to Nemuro, on the Japanese island of Hokkaido. The Magan-based L-410 fleet, having been found almost too expensive to maintain, is now grounded. The five weekly roundtrips they had operated to Zhingansk are replaced with a single An-24 service.
At the end of November, the company reports a mixed bag of results for the first 10 months. Profits are realized on the routes from Yakutsk to Ust-Mai, Ust-Nera, Zhigansk and Tiksi by reducing the number of flights offered. During the same period, 3.8 million rubles are lost on the Yak-40 service from Yakutsk to Neryungri. Losses are also reported by aircraft type: An-2, 10.25 million rubles; L-410,900,000 rubles; Yak-40, 5.18 million rubles; and An-24, 350,000 rubles.
At the beginning of December, V. Filatov, deputy chairman of the Sakha Parliament, and Mikhail Vasilyev, director of the Aviation Staff Trade Union of Sakha, convince the regional government to make available 11.8 million rubles (of 14 million rubles requested) to the local ministry of health. These funds will be distributed in 2 tranches of 6 million rubles each as payment to 4 regional carriers, including Sakha Avia. In addition, a new contract is awarded to the Magan-based wing for the operation of a Ministry of Emergency Situations Mi-8 search and rescue (SAR) service in the spring. Implementation of SAR flights depends, however, upon receipt of promised payments from the health ministry, which are slow in arriving. Without these funds, completion of the Mi-8 overhaul program started earlier is hampered because the helicopters, most of which are finished, are being held for nonpayment by the repair stations.
The company now begins renewed preparations for an enhanced summer schedule, which is to be implemented at the end of March. The Tu-154B leased to Iran is reacquired and joins five others remaining in the fleet in a program of additional inspection and maintenance, paid for through the lease of two An-24s. When available, the aircraft recently in Iran will be employed to add two additional weekly flights to Sochi and Yekaterinburg, thereby doubling the number of services provided to those destinations. Other aircraft will start flying from Yakutsk to Vi-lyuysk, Verhnevilyuysk, Suntar, Nyurba, and Tiksi, as well as on routes to Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk.
As the year ends, the Sakha Regional Aviation Department appoints Oleg Rogalev as the new director general of Sakha Avia. This official will reveal that, during the year, overall revenues have improved by 70% over the previous year, reaching 550 million rubles. Losses are below the 13 million rubles projected. He will also suggest that an An-24 may be employed to launch charter flights from Moscow to destinations in Southeast Asia.
SAKHALINSKIYE AVIA TRASSY-SAT (SAKHALIN AIR ROUTES): Aeroport, Gorkogo Str., Building 50A, Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, 693015, Russia; Phone 7 (42400) 95503; Fax 7 (50441) 62123; Http://www. airport. sakhalin. ru/sat; Code HZ; Year Founded 1992. Established at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport at Sakha, northeastern Siberia, on April 20, 1992, this new Russian airline appoints Konstantin P. Suhkhorebrik as general director. A mixed fleet is assembled comprising Ilyushin Il-76s, Antonov An-24s, An-26s, and An-12s; these aircraft initiate domestic cargo flights along the Pacific coast in the fall. The company, a sister to Sakhavia Trans Air Company, continues operations in 1993-1994.
In 1995, the two carriers are merged under this carrier’s name. The fleet consists of 2 Antonov An-12s, 3 Ilyushin Il-76s, 11 Tupolev Tu-154B/Ms, plus 1 chartered Boeing 737-246 and 2 leased Airbus A310-324s.
Being unable to maintain the pair of chartered A310-324s, the carrier transfers them to Aeroflot Russian International Airlines (ARIA) toward the end of the month; as part of the transfer, ARIA agrees to employ the aircraft on flights to Yakutsk, a capital of the Sakha Republic.
Enplanements total 846,000 passengers, a slight decline from the previous year. Freight traffic, on the other hand, accelerates by 3.6% to 125.5 million FTKs.
Three more jetliners enter service in 1996, but capacity alone cannot deliver traffic. Customer bookings plunge 25.9% to 626,886.
Destinations visited in 1997-1998 include Blagoveshchensk, Hakodate, Khabarovsk, the Kurile Islands, Oha, Pusan, Seoul, and Vladivostok.
While preparing to land at Vladivostok on May 20 of the latter year following a flight from Skahalin, the crew of the B-737-246 with 103 passengers finds that the landing gear will not lower on command. While the airport is prepared for an emergency crash landing, the cockpit crew is able to lower the wheels manually and land the plane normally. No injuries are reported.
Flights continue without incident in 1999. As the result of the fiscal impact of the Russian currency crisis that began the previous August, the leased A310-324s are returned to their lessor.
A total of 538 workers are employed at the beginning of 2000. The fleet now includes 1 B-737-246, 7 An-24s, 1 An-26, and 1 Il-62. Destinations visited include Korea, Japan, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, and several intraregional points on Sakhalin Island.
In an effort to drive down the alleged high fares of Domodedovo Airlines on the route from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to Moscow and, indeed, provide service when that carrier is briefly shut down, SAT is provided with a second Il-62 in February. The $1.5-million aircraft is presented to SAT (under charter) from the Sakhalin regional government as part of a plan to assist with the costs the carrier will assume in taking on the new service.
During the spring, the Japanese government grants permission for the inauguration of charter flights from Japan to the Kurile Islands. The new service will be offered as an alternative to the sea crossing, which is only possible between April and October. The first An-24 charter is operated on October 29.
Weekly An-24 roundtrips are inaugurated on December 21 from Sakhalin Island to Harbin, China. By year’s end, the carrier is suffering significant financial loss on its Moscow service; by the time it has been operated for a year, the company will have lost almost 37 million rubles ($1.27 million) flying a total of 14,000 passengers.
On March 15,2001, the airline will announce the initiation of weekly An-24 return service, beginning in early May, between Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Sapporo, Japan, for Russian passengers seeking transit to other Southeast Asian destinations. Return frequencies to Sapporo, as well as Hakodate, will be increased to twice weekly during the summer. Flights from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to Moscow will cease on May 20 and the leased Il-62 will be used on the charter routes to Seoul and Pusan.
SAKHAVIATRANS AIR COMPANY (SAKHAAVIA TRANS AVIAKOMPANIYA): Russia (1993-1995). A sister to Sakhalinskiye Avi-atrassy, STAC is also established at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport in 1993 and Vladimir F. Rykunov is appointed general manager. His new concern inaugurates regional and international cargo services with 2 Antonov An-12s and 1 Ilyushin Il-76T.
In 1994, the company mission is enhanced to include passenger operations and the fleet is increased by the addition of 1 more Il-76T, 11 Tupolev Tu-154B/Ms, and the first Western-made aircraft, a leased Boeing 737-247 originally delivered to Western Airlines in the U. S., which arrives in August. The first of two chartered Airbus Industrie A310-304s arrive from Toulouse, France, in November. Enplanements reach 850,230.
In 1995, this company is merged into Sakhalinskiye Avia Trassy-Sat
(Sakhalin Air Routes), with the latter name surviving.
SAKONNET AIR CHARTER: United States (1986-1987). Sakonnet is established at Middletown, Rhode Island, in 1986 to provide scheduled passenger and cargo services to Newport. Although daily Piper PA-31-310 Navajo roundtrips are duly inaugurated, they cannot be sustained beyond 1987. Charter flights are, however, undertaken and maintained.
SALAIR, A. B.: Sweden (1987-1991). Landvetter-based AMA Air Express (AMA-Flyg i Goteborg, A. B.) is acquired by the shipping and offshore energy concern Salenia, A. B., a family enterprise, in late 1986. The name of the international commuter, which had connected Sweden with the Danish city of Aalborg, is changed to Salair, A. B.
From Landvetter in February 1987, the reformed Salair provides scheduled flights to such local destinations as Goteborg, Kalmar, Linkoping, Norrkoping, Ronneby, and Stockholm. Managing Director Anders Lindman’s 50-employee maintains operations with a fleet of 3 Fairchild Metro IIIs and 1 SAAB 340A, the 100th machine delivered by the Swedish manufacturer.
By year’s end, a total of 49,000 passengers have been transported.
Four additional Metroliners join the fleet in the spring in 1988 and two more 340As arrive in October. During the year, the commuter Skyways of Scandinavia, A. B. is purchased. Urmas Kruusval becomes managing director in 1989 and the fleet is increased by the addition of four Fairchild Metro IIIs. The corporate headquarters is shifted to Linkoping and new routes are planned to Stockholm and from Stockholm to Mora and Gavle.
New destinations visited in 1990 include Mora, Gavie, Stockholm, Malmo, and Linkoping. This expansion proves more costly than expected, as anticipated passenger traffic of 135,000 passengers is not generated. Plans are now made to merge with the larger regional Swedair,
A. B.
Early in 1991, Gavie, Malmo, and Stockholm services are suspended and two Metroliners are withdrawn. After the Swedair, A. B. merger negotiation fails in April, Per Toom becomes the third managing director since start-up, but he is unable to reverse the downward slide, despite the August inauguration of twice-daily frequencies from Malmo to London (LGW).
Merger negotiations begun between Salenia, A. B. and Gotlandsbo-laget, A. B., parent to Avia Airlines, A. B. are successfully completed in early 1992. On July 15, Salair, A. B. and Avia Airlines, A. B. are joined in a merger, with the latter’s name surviving. Salenia, A. B. purchases the enlarged carrier in early 1993 and it is now renamed Skyways Avia, A. B.
World History
