URALAIR (URALTOO): Russia (1993-1997). This Urals division of Aeroflot Russian International Airlines (ARIA) is reformed at Ekaterinburg in 1993 to offer worldwide cargo and passenger charters. Vladimir E. Beketov is general director and he launches revenue flights with 2 Antonov An-32s and 3 An-24s.
Two Ilyushin Il-86s, 19 Tupolev Tu-154Bs, and 6 An-12s are added in 1994 and passenger boardings reach 524,840.
The carrier’s 32 aircraft transport a total of 494,200 passengers in 1995, a 6.2% decline. Cargo traffic, on the other hand, accelerates by 13.4% to 9.3 million FTKs.
Much of this growth can be attributed to the company’s newfound practice of performing nonscheduled cargo flights to Sharjab, UAE, where Tu-154Bs can be loaded with profitable cargos of cheap (by Russian standards) clothing and all kinds of electronic products.
Flights continue in 1996, although the fleet is altered downward to include 2 Antonov An-32s and 1 Ilyushin Il-76TD.
In 1997, the Urals Civil Aviation Department (Uralskoe UGA) and Ural Air (Ural Too) are joined together into a single joint stock company, with shareholding divided between the airline’s employees (56%), Proektniye Technologi (13.9%), and private investors, including Deutsche Lufthansa, A. G. (30%).
URAL AIRLINES: Koltsovo Airport, Sputnikov Str. 6, Ekaterinburg, Urals Zone, 620025, Russia; Phone 7 (3432) 266625; Fax 7 (3432) 266221; Http://www. uralairlines. com; Code U6; Year Founded 1997. In 1997, the Urals Civil Aviation Department (Ural-skoe UGA) and Ural Air (Ural Too) are joined together into a single joint stock company, with shareholding divided between the airline’s employees (20.47%), Proektniye Technologi (13.93%), Uraltransbank (14.7%), and private investors, including Deutsche Lufthansa, A. G. (50.5%). Under the leadership of Director General Serguey Skuratkov, the new entity is named Ural Airlines.
Domestic, regional, and international passenger services, both scheduled and charter, are maintained. Among the routes operated is a twice-weekly (thrice-weekly between June and August) return service from Yekaterinburg to Bonn and Cologne. Despite reorganization and a 26% reduction in ticket prices for domestic flights and flights to CIS countries, overall passenger boardings for the year decline another 10.8% to 344,300.
Service continues without incident or headline in 1998. New charter destinations initially visited include Israel, Italy, Spain, and Bulgaria. Customer bookings ascend to 480,000. The Russian currency crisis, which starts in August, has a significant impact on company earnings, although exact figures are not available.
The situation improves somewhat during 1999 and the fleet is upgraded by the return to active status of 5 An-12s, 2 An-24Bs, 3 Il-86s, and 10 Tu-154s withdrawn earlier.
Weekly Tu-154M return service is inaugurated on September 1 from Ekaterinburg to Cologne via Prague. In Prague, Viola Plus, S. R.O. becomes the carrier’s general sales agent (GSA).
On September 28, Ural Airlines becomes the first airline to install a Siren-3 booking system.
An on-line reservations service is opened on December 9. The same day, a strategic marketing agreement is signed with CSA Czech Airlines. The two agree to share European services and ground services requirements beginning in April, while Ural passengers are immediately able to interline on Czech long-haul flights to such points as New York (JFK).
On December 10, An-12 cargo flights commence from Dubai to Prague via Istanbul, Tashkent, Baku, Tbilisi, Yerevans, and Ekaterinburg. Express mail service between Ekaterinburg and Prague begins the same day.
Enplanements are level at 480,000 while 16.95 million FTKs are operated. Revenues of $34 million are generated. There are, however, large, if unannounced, losses.
Airline employment totals 1,129 at the beginning of 2000. The fleet now includes 3 each An-24s and Il-86s, 12 Tu-154Bs, and 2 Tu-154Ms.
In cooperation with CSA Czech Airlines, dual-designator twice-weekly return service is launched on April 1 between Ekaterinburg and Prague. On April 6, weekly roundtrips are initiated by these partners from Yekaterinburg to Prague
By the spring, the carrier is in a dire financial situation. On April 10, the regional property fund announces that the 13.93% of the airline held by Proektniye Technologi will be sold at a public auction in about a month.
Ural Airlines and CSA begin a second weekly return service to the Czech capital from Yekaterinburg on April 24. Also on April 24, the carrier begins to code-share with Transaero Airlines over a route from Ekaterinburg to Moscow.
On April 25, the regional property fund announces the date of the airline’s sale will be May 18. The carrier publishes its summer schedule on May 11, but is uncertain as to the volume of traffic that it may generate. The May 18 auction is pushed back into late June.
After a Ural Tu-154 flight lands at Yekaterinburg, in SE Siberia, on May 30 following a service from Tashkent, an unexploded bomb is found aboard. Russian aviation authority experts later report that the explosive device is not in working order and could not have blown up.
An auction of the airline is held on June 27, but attracts little interest. To offset rising fuel costs, ticket prices begin to climb; they will reach a total 15% increase for the year.
Plans are announced on August 10 for a second auction of the company, as well as Koltsovo Airport. When the event is held on August 31, no bids are received. Officials later report that the lack of interest was not unexpected.
Having been unable to unload the airline, its leadership now determines to make a go of it. Work begins to upgrade the fleet of 4 Il-86s, 15 Tu-154s, and 3 An-24s by installing TCAS aboard 7 aircraft (at a cost of $1.5 million) to meet the April demands of Eurocontrol. Additional improvements include cabin upgrades and the installation of KLN-90B satellite navigation systems.
In addition to the flight equipment improvements, Ural also opens more ticket offices to be closer to its customers. New officers are opened in Moscow, Sochi, Khabarovsk, Yerevan, Baku, Tbilisi, Tashkent, Cologne, and Dubai, as well as Prague. Plans are made to open five more in the Sverdlov region in the new year.
Frequencies are also increased on the popular summer routes, including flights to Sochi, Anapa, Mineral Waters, Astrakhan, Krasnodar, Rostov, Sartor, and Samara. Charters are operated to Tunisia and Mallorca.
Late in the year, permission is received from the Czech transport ministry for the initiation of services from Prague to foreign destinations. Planning immediately begins for the inauguration of flights to The Netherlands, Spain, and France, as well as to Turkey and the UAE.
Passenger boardings dip to 476,623 however cargo and mail increases by 12% to 4,816 tons.
URAL INTERAVIA (URALINTERAVIAAQZT): 2 Ulitsa Kuznetsova, Ekaterinburg, Urals Zone, 620012, Russia; Phone 7 (3432) 266 942; Fax 7 (3432) 266 026; Code U3; Year Founded 1993. Another new private enterprise airline founded at Ekaterinburg in 1993 is Ural Interavia, a domestic ad hoc all-cargo carrier. Mikhail U. Deriagin is named director general and he initiates regional and international revenue services with 3 Ilyushin Il-76s.
Passenger charters are started in 1994 and the fleet grows to include 4 Il-76s and 5 Il-86s. The Russian currency crisis of 1998-1999 has a significant impact on the airline, which now reverts to its original mission as a freight operator. The Il-86s are withdrawn and replaced with two more Il-76, Dash-TDs.
URALS CIVIL AVIATION DEPARTMENT (URALSKOE UGA): Russia (1992-1997). When Aeroflot Soviet Airlines is reformed in early 1992, this Ekaterinburg-based Urals Directorate is reborn as an affiliate of the new Aeroflot Russian International Airlines (ARIA).
V. V. Vakmromov is placed in charge and he continues to operate scheduled domestic trunk and regional services with a fleet that includes 10 Antonov An-12s and 20 Tupolev Tu-154s.
Enplanements total 4,443,948.
International charter flights are initiated to Europe and Southeast Asia in 1993. The downturn in the Russian economy brings a big decline in traffic.
Passenger boardings plunge 38.7% to 3,204,000 while freight is off by 38.3% to 523.7 million FTKs.
The fleet is reduced by three Tu-154s in 1994. Customer bookings decline another 34.4% to 2,102,000, while cargo drops 13.2% to 455 million FTKs.
Enplanements plunge in 1995, falling all the way down to 470,713.
In 1996, the carrier’s 26 aircraft transport a total of 386,464 passengers, a 21.8% decline.
In 1997, the company is altered into a joint stock company, with shareholding divided between the airline’s employees (56%), Proekt-niye Technologi (13.9%), and private investors, including Deutsche Lufthansa (30%). The new entity is renamed Ural Airlines.
LA URRACA (LINEAS AEREAS LA URRACA, S. A.): Colombia (1955-1979). Alvaro Henao and Fernando Jaramillo found La Urraca (“The Magpie”) at Villavicencio in 1955. Employing Douglas DC-3s and Curtiss C-46 Commandos, the brothers seek passenger and cargo charters throughout the heart of Colombia and into the Caribbean. Services continue without incident until November 26, 1962, when a Curtiss C-46 crashes near Port Henderson, Jamaica (two dead). Scheduled flights are initiated in January 1963.
Late in that decade, Fernando is killed in the crash of a new Curtiss C-46 being ferried in from Miami. Ownership now reverts to Alvaro and Fernando’s widow Nydia, who maintains operations apace during the remainder of the 1960s.
While en route from Villavicencio to Monterrey on June 20, 1969, a DC-3 with 20 passengers is hijacked to Cuba by three men and a woman.
In 1970, three Handley Page Heralds are purchased. Thirteen are killed as a DC-3 explodes and burns after an emergency landing on a riverbank near Puerto Infrida, 80 miles south of Bogota, on February 12.
In 1971, the fleet comprises 3 Heralds, 4 DC-3s, 2 C-46s, and 1 de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver. Regularly scheduled passenger and cargo services are launched from Bogota and Villavicencio to south Colombian destinations, including Miraflores, Sogamoso, Mito, and Agnazai.
While climbing away from Bogota for a flight to San Andres on January 21, 1972, a Vickers Viscount 837 with 5 crew and 15 passengers suffers an explosion and crashes near Funza; there are no survivors.
A Handley Page HPR-7 Herald 101 is damaged beyond repair in a bad landing at Valledupar on May 7; there are no fatalities.
A little over 9 months later, on February 21, 1973, 22 people perish when a DC-3 smashes into the mountains near Boquete, Panama. While landing at Arauca on November 2 after a flight from Paz de Ariporo and Tame, a Herald 101 with 4 crew and 12 passengers is diverted to Villavicencio, where, with a feathering No. 1 engine, it crashes (6 dead).
Flights continue apace in 1974, but there is another accident in 1975. The failure of its No. 2 engine forces an HPR-7 Herald 101 with two crew and a passenger to make an emergency landing on a grassy field near La Libertad, Colombia, on June 22; no injuries are reported.
Toward the end of the decade, the company acquires a pair of Britten-Norman BN-2 Islanders. However, following the loss of two DC-3s in crashes, the 248-employee carrier returns its focus to charter work and in 1979, following government investigations into various rules violations, La Urraca’s operating license is revoked.
U. S. AIRCOACH: United States (1951-1957). Established at Miami in 1951, U. S. Aircoach inaugurates nonscheduled all-cargo charters with a single Curtiss C-46 Commando. A second Curtiss freighter is leased from The Flying Tiger Line in 1952, but is only flown for a brief period. The company fails in 1957.
U. S. AIRLINES: United States (1944-1955). U. S. Airlines, Inc. is organized at St. Petersburg, Florida, on June 9, 1944. Douglas C-47 (military DC-3) charter operations of the irregular begin on December 5, 1945. Scheduled flights commence in January 1946 and on October 10, the CAB grants the carrier the first operating permit given a nonsched-uled U. S. airline. The carrier receives its letter of registration on July 30 and flights are now undertaken from Boston to New Orleans, with various stops in between.
U. S. Airlines is one of the cargo carriers caught up in the rate war that now breaks out between the scheduled airlines. So intense is the conflict that special hearings on the matter are held before the CAB. In May 1947, the government awards temporary certificates to 14 “non-skeds.” Although a recipient, U. S. Airlines elects to suspend services until the CAB completes its work.
In April 1948, a minimum rate level is ordered put in place and U. S. Airlines now resumes operations, employing eight Curtiss C-46 Commandos leased from the USAF. By year’s end, the company is one of only six all-cargo carriers still flying. When it is fully certified on August 12, 1949, U. S. Airlines is one of just four still operating.
Scheduled freight flights to New York, Texas and other destinations with Skytrains and Curtiss Commandos continue apace in during the remainder of the year and into 1950. Scheduled service is withdrawn in June 1951, but Newark to Miami all-cargo contract flights begin on September 18, followed by nonstop New York to Miami routing on November 30.
A reserved space cargo plan is established on January 6, 1952. New York to New Orleans through-service begins on March 19. On April 5, a C-46 with two crew en route to Idlewild Airport from Fort Lauderdale misses its approach and plunges steeply into a residential section of Jamaica, New York. Both pilots are killed, along with three people on the ground; in addition, 5 houses and 22 autos are destroyed.
Thereafter the company files for bankruptcy, but operations are maintained throughout the remainder of the year, in 1953, and into 1954.
A merger with California Eastern Air Lines is announced on July 26. All 55 aboard are safe as a DC-4 lands at Hilo, Hawaii, on November 7 after a 300-mi. flight with 2 engines out. Scheduled authority is withdrawn on April 27, 1955 and the business shuts its doors shortly thereafter.
World History
