AIR KENYA AVIATION, LTD.: P. O. Box 30357, Wilson Airport, Nairobi, Kenya; Phone 254 (2) 501 601; Fax 254 (2) 602 951; Http://www. airkenya. com; Code QP; Year Founded 1987. John Buckley revitalizes the authority of the charter carrier Wilkenair, Ltd. (defunct in 1971) at Nairobi’s Wilson Airport in 1986, renaming his concern
Air Kenya Aviation, Ltd. The country’s largest passenger airline, Sun-bird Aviation, Ltd., is taken over in November 1987 and merged. A new corporate image, emphasizing the marketing name Airkenya, is introduced by Managing Director Buckley, complete with a sunbird logo.
In addition to its charter frequencies, the company, in 1988-1989, offers scheduled flights throughout Kenya and to the neighboring nations of Zaire, Somalia, and Sudan.
In 1990, the decision is taken by the government to allow Air Kenya to leave the international scene and to offer third-level scheduled services exclusively, with a fleet that now includes 5 Beech 58 Barons, 2 Douglas DC-3s, and 3 de Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otters.
A third DC-3 and a Fokker F.27-200 (previously operated by Kenya Airways, Ltd.) arrive early in 1991. Daily “Coastflite” service is inaugurated in June between Nairobi and Mombasa, with most flights provided by the Fokker. In November, the government authorizes the small company to compete over domestic routes with Kenya Airways, Ltd.
In competition with the flag carrier, twice-daily weekday scheduled “Coastflite” service is inaugurated by the F.27-200 in December from Nairobi to Mombasa and to Kisumu.
The fleet is altered in 1992 as 1 Baron is retired and 1 DC-3 is damaged beyond repair in a hard landing at the Mara. These are replaced by another Twin Otter, 2 Piper PA-31-310 Navajos, and 1 Pentavia P-68B.
An F.27-400 is leased from Schreiner Airways, N. V. of the Netherlands and is placed on the Nairobi-Mombasa trunk line. Meanwhile, the original F.27-200 is chartered during the second half of the year to the UN for 18 months. Supplemented by a Shorts 360-300, the aircraft conducts cargo flights back and forth from Nairobi and Mombasa to Mogadishu.
Flights continue in 1993-1994 with 1 DHC-6-200 , 6 DHC-6-300s, 1 F.27-200, 2 DC-3s, and 1 F.27-400 leased from Schreiner Airways, N. V. of the Netherlands. When the Dutch Fokker is returned early in the former year, it is replaced with a pair of Shorts 360-300s, including that employed on the UN service.
Operations continue apace in 1995-1996. During these years, Managing Director John Buckley and Chief Pilot Dino Bisleti begin to search for a DC-3 replacement. The investigation of possibilities leads them to visit Tyrolean Airways, A. G., where the de Havilland Canada DHC-7 is tested. Two of the Canadian turboprops, first flown by Atlantic Southeast Airlines, are ordered at year’s end, along with two Cessna 208 Caravan Is.
Meanwhile, a subsidiary, Regional Air Service, Ltd. is established at Arusha, Tanzania, to offer Piper T1040 tourist flights to destinations within that nation. Under the direction of General Manager/Chief Pilot Iris McCallum, the sister airline offers daily flights to Kilimanjaro, as well as to Manyara, Seronera, and Grumeti.
Enplanements during the latter year total 113,000.
Airline employment stands at 210 in 1997. During the first quarter, Eagle Aviation, Ltd. begins competing over the “Coastflite” route. The startling development forces Air Kenya Aviation to charter a DASH-7 from Arkia Israel Airlines, Ltd. and to revamp its corporate image. The makeover, which involves a new color scheme and uniforms, plus heavy advertising, is designed to emphasize the airline’s schedule attributes. A Caravan I arrives in the early spring.
A DHC-7-102 is added in May and enters service on June 12. Arrival of the turboprop allows the company to retire its DC-3s, the first on June 21 and the second on September 1. A second DHC-7-102 arrives in October, followed by a second C-208 in November. Domestic destinations visited include Amboseli, Kiwayu, Lamu, Malindi, Masai Mara, Mombasa, Nanyuki, and Samburu.
Customer bookings for the year reach approximately 140,000.
The DHC-7s undertake twice-daily return services in 1998 between Nairobi and Mombasa. Working with a number of tourist agencies and tour providers, the airline continues to emphasize a heavy scheduled of vacation flights to East African game parks. Masai Mara is the most popular tourist destination, to which Air Kenya operates twice daily. Additionally, coach class service is provided five times a week from Nairobi to Kilimanjaro.
Late in the year, the DC-3s, which had been retired the previous year, are both brought briefly back into charter service prior to their departure to South Africa, where they had been sold to a private vintage aircraft concern. Enplanements exceed 155,000.
Regional Air Service, Ltd., early in 1999, introduces a new service from Arusha to Mwanza, on the shores of Lake Victoria.
Enplanements for the year reach 155,000.
During the summer of 2000, a baby DeBrazza monkey is transported to Mombasa at the request of the Kenya Wildlife Services; it is one of the few of this endangered species remaining in Kenya.
In Operation Smile, the carrier provides lift for dentists and surgeons, sponsored by Colgate Palmolive, who are flown from Nairobi to points around the nation where free cleft palate and hare lip corrective surgeries are performed.
New offices are opened in Mombasa on September 10 while, later in the month, the airline flies the Indian National Cricket Team when it visits Nairobi to participate in the Four Nations Cricket Tournament.
AIR KILROE, LTD.: Hangar 4, Western Maintenance Area, Manchester International Airport, Manchester, England, M90 5PR, United Kingdom; Phone 44 (161) 436-2055; Fax 44 (161) 436-2541; Code 9R; Year Founded 1978. Air Kilroe, Ltd. is organized at Manchester Airport in 1978 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Kilroe Group, chaired by Timothy Kilroe. Passenger and freight charters are undertaken from Manchester Airport for the next 15 years. The company becomes an associate of the Irish airline Aer Arann, Ltd. Enplanements in 1990 total 27,000.
In 1991, the 34-employee carrier of Managing Director Brian Het-herington seeks permission to offer scheduled services linking the airline’s base with Southampton and Teesside. Passenger boardings total 31,000.
The fleet in 1992 includes 1 leased British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31, 1 Super Jetstream 31, and 1 Beech Super King Air 200. Scheduled flights begin and bookings reach 40,000.
The fleet in 1993 comprises 1 Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain, 3 BAe Jetstream 31s, 1 Partenavia P-68B, and 2 Beech Super King Air 200s. The workforce totals 40 and scheduled service is inaugurated between Manchester and Cardiff on September 13. Later in the fall, a codesharing agreement is signed with the Scottish carrier Business Air, Ltd. Under its provisions, Air Kilroe inaugurates daily roundtrip feeder services linking the Welsh capital with Aberdeen, Dundee, and Inverness.
The 31-employee airline continues operations largely without change in 1994-1998. On March 1 of the latter year, a Jetstream 31 is leased to Aer Arann, Ltd., which needs the turboprop for the initiation of a new service to and from Donegal International Airport.
Flight are maintained in 1999-2000.
AIR KIRBATI: P. O. Box 274, Bonriki, Tarawa, Kirbati; Phone 686 28405; Fax 686 28216; Code AKIR; Year Founded 1996. Air Kirbati is set up on Tarawa in 1996 to offer scheduled services around the national atolls. Capt. Beuitera Tabokai is operations manager and offers revenue flights with 1 each Harbin Y-12 and CASA C-212-200 Aviocar.
AIR KORYO: Sunnan Airport, Sunnan District, P’yongyang, North Korea; Phone 850 (2) 37917; Fax 850 (2) 4571; Code JS; Year Founded 1950. In early 1950, the Soviet Union and the P’yongyang government of the Democratic Republic of Korea form the Soviet-North Korean Airline (SOKAO) as a joint-venture company. Equipped with Tashkent-built Lisunov Li-2s (license-built Douglas DC-3s), the carrier links the North Korean capital with Vladivostok via Ch’ongjin and Peking, as well as Chita via the Manchurian towns of Mukden, Harbin, Tsitsihar, and Hailar.
These routes barely begin before North Korea invades South Korea on June 25, beginning a conflict that requires the company to stand down until 1953. When flights resume, a new connection to Moscow is offered via Chita.
The North Koreans acquire full control of SOKAO on September 21, 1955 and the Ministry of Communications, under which it is placed, renames the carrier UKAMPS. Scheduled international services are maintained to the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. The capital is linked with the domestic cities of Ch’ongjin, Kaesong, Kimch’aek (Songjin), Sinuiju, and Wonsan. Haijoo, Kanggye, Hamhung, and Hye-san are added to the route network.
During the early 1970s, the company is again relabeled; with additional duties, it becomes CAAK (Chosonminhang Korean Airways) (Civil Aviation Administration of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea). The first jet type introduced is a Tupolev Tu-154B received in 1975; by 1978, the fleet’s jetliner component comprises two Tupolev Tu-154Bs, with a third delivered in 1979.
By the early 1980s, CAAK is equipped with a fleet of 3 Tu-154Bs, 2 Ilyushin Il-62s, 4 Il-18s, 3 Il-14s, and 7 Antonov An-24s. Weekly An-24 flights are made to Beijing and Khabarovsk while the Tu-154Bs undertake services from P’yongyang to Moscow via Irkutsk and Novosibirsk.
A chartered Il-62M, with 23 passengers, crashes in the mountainous region of Fouta Djallon near Labe, Guinea, on July 1, 1983; there are no survivors.
The Ilyushin jetliners replace Tu-154Bs on routes to Prague and East Berlin. The fleet in 1988 is reported to include 5 Il-62s, 4 Tu-154Bs, and 10 turboprops.
During the remainder of the decade, the fleet is upgraded. One An-24,
2 Il-18s, 3 Il-14s, and 2 Il-62s are deleted and replaced by 4 Il-62Ms,
3 Il-76TDs, 1 Tu-154B, and 2 Tu-134Bs. Berlin and Sofia are added to the route network and charter services are undertaken to destinations in Asia, Africa, and Europe.
In 1992, the carrier is reformed and given a corporate makeover, complete with its present name. Based at Sunnan Airport, Director General Kim Yo Ung’s airline in 1993 employs 2,500 workers. No figures are available for 1994.
The fleet in 1995-1996 includes 8 An-24s, 4 Il-18s, 4 Il-62Ms, 3 Il-76MDs, 2 Tu-134Bs, and 4 Tu-154Bs. Regularly scheduled destinations visited from P’yongyang include Bangkok, Beijing, Berlin, Ch’ongjin, Hamhung, Kaesong, Kanggye, Khabarovsk, Kilchu, Moscow, Sinuiju, and Sofia.
A new scheduled route to Macau is opened in the fall of the latter year. The company simultaneously joins IATA.
An arrangement is reached during August 1997 by DHL Worldwide Express with both Air Koryo and China Northern Airlines Company, Ltd. to provide all-cargo shipments between Beijing and P’yongyang, employing belly space aboard the airliners of those two companies.
At the same time, a separate freight agreement is reached with Air Koryo. Under its terms, the North Korean airline will employ an Antonov An-26 to fly trading documents and light machinery between Japan and Europe on behalf of DHL.
Also in August, an airline office is opened at Vladivostok as plans are initiated to operate scheduled service between that Russian city and P’yongyang.
In mid-April 1998, the North Korean airline completes negotiations with DHL Worldwide Express for the lease of a Mil Mi-17-8P. The heavy-lift helicopter will be employed to run a daily all-cargo circuit between Yanji Airport in China, the Rajin-Sonbong free trade zone and the nuclear reactor construction site at Sinpo (both of which have no airstrip), and P’yongyang. Connections will be made at Yanji and P’yongyang with Air Koryo or China Northern Airlines Company, Ltd..
In early May, SAS Cargo, the freight division of SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System), takes 50% of the capacity of a second Air Koryo An-26 leased by DHL Worldwide Express; the two carriers will offer joint services from Copenhagen to destinations along the Baltic coast.
Airline employment stands at 2,500 at the beginning of 1999. Scheduled service is maintained to Bangkok, Beijing, Berlin, Macau, Sofia, and Vladivostok.
Twice weekly Tu-154B roundtrips commence on April 5, 2000 between P’yongyang and Shenyang, China. Tu-154B charters are launched on April 29 between P’yongyang and Nagoya. With service from P’yongyang to Macau having been reduced from thrice weekly to weekly, the carrier, on April 12, seeks permission to launch non-scheduled roundtrips to Hong Kong.
As a result of June discussions between the leaders of North and South Korea, a goodwill gesture by both governments permits four days of reunions between separated families in mid-August. A company Tu-154B with a group of 100 North Korean family members aboard, kicks off the exchange on August 15 when it flies to Seoul from P’yongyang. The plane returns with 100 South Korean family members.
Plans to initiate charter flights from P’yongyang to Hong Kong are put on hold on August 8 when local officials prohibit flights into the former British colony, due to insurance and noise considerations, of Air Koryo’s Tu-154Bs.
World History
