KATALE AIR TRANSPORT, S. A.: Zaire (1978-1994). Established at Goma Kivu in 1978, KAT, originally named for the Domaine de Katale coffee plantation and known as Katale Aero Transport, undertakes cargo transport from Goma to Kinshasa and Mombasa. Much of the work centers on the transport of coffee, using 3 former RAF Bristol Britannia 253Cs.
Within five years, the coffee market suffers a downturn, forcing the one-industry oriented carrier to diversify. A Boeing 707-329C Stratofreighter is purchased from Sabena Belgian World Airlines, S. A. in 1983 and is employed to take over from the Britannicas and provide international and regional general freight services and contract service flights.
The Boeing is supplemented in 1988 with a Douglas DC-8-55F Jet Trader christened Hubert. By 1989, the fleet includes 1 each Britannia 312F, Boeing 707-329C, and Douglas DC-8-55F.
Business slows in 1990, requiring the withdrawal of the Britannia 312F and a grounded Britannia 253C. On March 1, the Stratofreighter, with three crew, is damaged beyond repair after its Belgian pilot lands short of the Goma Airport runway; no personnel injuries are reported.
To avoid damage during civil unrest, the surviving Jet Trader is dispatched to a base at Ostend, in Belgium, in September 1991. The aircraft is grounded there until May 1992, when it is sold.
Although the company’s international service is thus finished, Katale soldiers on within Central Africa, flying the remaining pair of Britannica 253Cs in 1993 until the airline shuts its doors in 1994.
KATMAI AIR: 4550 Aircraft Drive, Suite 2, Anchorage, Alaska, 99502 United States; Phone (907) 243-5448; Fax (907) 243-0649; Year Founded 1992. Raymond F. Petersen forms this FAR Part 135 operation at Anchorage in 1992 to offer charter flights to small communities and bush destinations. Griffith W. Bennett is named director of op-erations/chief pilot and he launches revenue services as Katmai Air with 1 each Cessna 206 and de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter.
Both planes are float-equipped and flights continue. Enplanements reach 8,613 in 1996, dipping 1.6% in 1997 to 8,478.
Customer bookings inch up to 8,631 in 1998, but plunge 23.3% in 1999 to 7,000.
KATO AIR, A. S.: P. O. Box 5544, Harstad, 9401, Norway; Phone 47 (77) 08 22 00; Fax 47 (77) 08 47 28; Http://www. geocities. com/ CapeCanaveral/Hangar/4686/Katoair. html; Code KAT; Year Founded 1995. Using the initial two letters of their first names to form the company’s moniker, Karl Johan and Torlaug Karlsen establish this small carrier at Evens Airport in late 1995 to offer scheduled passenger service to Tromso and Bodo in northern Norway.
With an initial fleet of one each Dornier 228-200 and Piper PA-31350 Navajo Chieftain, revenue flights commence in the spring of 1996. Charter flights are also provided to Trondheim and Bronnoysund.
In 1997, the workforce totals eight, including both Karlsens, and a Cessna 208 Caravan I is acquired. It is expanded to undertake all-cargo newspaper services to Tromso and Bodo.
The Dornier 228-100 Bjornfjell is leased in early 1998. On December 11, a supporter, Christian H. Kamhaug, opens a homepage for the carrier on the Internet’s World Wide Web.
Flights continue.
KAVMINVODYAVIA: Mineralniye Vody Airport, Mineralniye Vody, Stavropol, 357310, Russia; Phone 7 (86533) 56676; Fax 7 (86533) 59637; http://www.196.131.10.64/kmvavia; Code KV; Year Founded 1961. The Aeroflot Soviet Airlines directorate Mineralvodskoe, based at Mineralniye Vody Airport, is reformed in 1992 into a semiautonomous division of Aeroflot Russian International Airlines (ARIA). Vasilii V. Babashkin is director general of this KMV (Kavkazia Mineraline Vody Mineraovodskoe Production Association). Regional revenue services are continued with a fleet of 20 Tupolev Tu-154B/Ms, 25 Tu-134s, and such smaller types as Yakovlev Yak-40s, Yak-42s, and Antonov An-26s.
Operations continue apace in 1993 as regional and truck services are provided to major cities, while charters are provided to Europe and Asia.
Under the leadership of Director General Babashkin, KMV is reformed into Kavmininvodyavia in 1994. The independent operates both scheduled and nonscheduled international, regional, and domestic services from Mineralniye Vody. A fleet is assembled comprising 33 Antonov An-2s, 5 Tupolev Tu-134s, and 14 Tu-154A/M/Bs. Enplane-ments for the year total 565,757.
Regional frequencies to Berlin, Dubai, and Sharjah commence in 1995. Passenger boardings inch up 1% to 568,600 while freight traffic climbs 30% to 14.3 million FTKs.
The CIS carrier has a very bad 1996 as customer bookings plunge 16.9% to 472,506. The fleet in 1997 is much as it was three years earlier, save for the addition of another Tu-154M. Passenger boardings plunge 19.1% to 382,600.
Babaskin’s fleet in 1998 includes five Tu-134s, 14 Tu-154s, and a newly delivered Tu-204-100, one of seven ordered at the beginning of the decade. Scheduled service link the company’s base with Chisinau, Chita, Ekaterinburg, Khabarovsk, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Munich, Murmansk, Nizhnevartovsk, Nizhni Novgorod, Noriisk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Smarara, St. Petersburg, Surgut, Tashkent, Tyumen, Ufa, and Ylyanovsk.
The company also offers year-round charters to Sharjah, Athens, Thessaloniki, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Lamaka, and Aleppo. During the summer, charters are also operated to Malta, Varna, and Antalya. For its activities, the carrier is awarded the national “Wings of Russia” prize. Late in the year, a homepage is opened on the World Wide Web.
Customer bookings fall another 12.1% to 332,000.
Service is maintained without headline or incident in 1999. Four Tu-154Bs depart the fleet as the company prepares to receive its second Tu-204.
Airline employment totals 3,117 at the beginning of 2000. The fleet now includes 1 Tu-204-100, 14 Tu-154s, and 5 Tu-134As.
Delivery of the second Tu-204-100 from Aviastar is reported in the Russian press on November 8.
On December 20, the carrier becomes the first Russian airline to order the new 160-seat Tupolev Tu-234, a twin-engine derivative of the Tu-204, from Aviastar. According to a report from OAO Tupolev chief designer Lev Lanovsky, Kavminvodyavia will partially fund the premier plane’s completion and the maiden flight will occur in April.
KAZAIR (KAZAKHSTAN NATIONAL AIRWAYS): 59 MIra Prospect, Alma Ata, 483000, Kazakhstan; Phone 7 (3270) 336 349; Fax 7 (3270) 335 506; Http://rz. uni-frankfurt. de/~puersuen/twakza. htm; Code K4; Year Founded 1993. Long a major Aeroflot Soviet Airlines directorate based at Alma Ata, Kazair in 1993 begins a yearlong process of shedding its code-sharing and joint marketing arrangements with the reorganized Russian major. CEO A. Ershov operates a fleet of 12 Ilyushin Il-62s, Il-76s, and Il-86s plus 25 Tupolev Tu-154Ms and 40 Antonov An-24s, An-26s, and An-28s. Domestic and international flights continue, while the airline also takes over responsibility for the operation, maintenance, and upgrade of Almaty Airport and the Academy of Civil Aviation.
While on final approach to Kustanay on January 16, the right engine of an An-24, with 4 crew and 19 passengers, fails; an effort is made to go around, but the aircraft continues to descend and hits the ground 162 m. short of the runway, sliding into a military An-24. Although the aircraft is damaged beyond repair, there are no fatalities.
On January 6, 1994, a Boeing 747SP-31 is acquired from American Airlines and is christened Sunkar. Orders are placed for B-767s. The company joins IATA and makes its first traffic reports to the organization. These show, through the first quarter, enplanements of 191,265.
Later in the year, construction is begun on a second runway at Almaty Airport. On September 1, the company takes delivery of two more Tu-154Ms and an Il-76TD.
While taking off from Sambailo on January 26, 1995, an An-26V with five crew and two passengers and wet-leased to Guinee Air Service, S. A. the previous year, overruns the runway, fails on lift off, and collides with a line of trees. Although the aircraft is damaged beyond repair, there are no fatalities. Over the next several years, two replacement An-26Vs will be chartered to the African carrier.
Kazair flights continue as Anatoly Galunov becomes director general. On August 3, one of the company’s four Il-76TDs is seized by Taliban rebels in Afghanistan.
During the year, the company encounters significant financial difficulties. A consortium of local construction companies and banks sues the airline for $11.1 million in damages in a dispute over the Almaty Airport runway construction. A number of aircraft are seized at Western airports for nonpayment of landing or parking fees.
An An-24B with four crew is destroyed as the result of a hard landing at Chimkent after a November 1 training flight; there are no fatalities.
Other aircraft are grounded at year’s end when their insurance coverage is allowed to lapse.
The fleet flagship Sunkar is leased to the government of Brunei in March 1996.
On April 30, the Kazakstan government announces a plan to restructure the troubled national carrier. The State Property Committee and Kazkommertzbank act as general managers for the airline during the early stages of reorganization. The latter conducts a financial and technical audit, which is published in August. The Transport and Communications Ministry puts forward its own suggestions for restructuring, including plans to spin off Kazair’s holdings in the Almaty Airport and the Academy of Civil Aviation.
By July 15, the company’s Il-76TD and crew have been held in Afghanistan for almost a year. On this date, a report surfaces that the Taliban rebels have handed the aircraft and its crew over to separatists in the breakaway Russian province of Chechniya. Director General Galunov immediately calls a press conference to report that this is not the case and to reassure families of the crew that the airline is doing everything possible for them. He notes that foodstuffs, drinking water, clothes, medications, and letters are forwarded to them in Quandahar whenever possible.
Meanwhile, some consideration is also given in various quarters to simply transferring all of the airline’s assets over to Kazakhstan Airlines, which is also known as Air Kazakhstan. That option loses its viability when, on August 20, Air Kazakhstan also goes bankrupt. Thereafter, every effort is put into restructuring Kazair and upgrading its financial situation.
KAZAKHSTAN AIRLINES: Kazakhstan (1994-1996). KA, also known as Air Kazakhstan, is established at Alma Ata in 1994 to provide scheduled and charter passenger and cargo services to domestic, regional, and international destinations.
Yermek S. Abdaramanov is CEO, 3,000 employees are recruited, and a fleet is assembled that comprises 22 Antonov An-24s, 9 An-26s, 8 An-30s,
1 An-72, 1 each Boeing 767-300, B-737-300, and Ilyushin Il-18, 7 Il-86s,
2 Tupolev Tu-154Ms, 10 Tu-134s, 29 Yakovlev Yak-40s, and 5 Yak-42Ds. Revenue flights are duly inaugurated to destinations throughout the
CIS, plus Hanover, Budapest, Beijing, Delhi, and Tel Aviv.
Unable to achieve economic viability after almost two years of operation, the company, with debts of $180 million, goes bankrupt on August 20,1996.
Efforts to restart are only briefly considered and by government decree the airline is liquidated by year’s end.
World History
