New General Director for Aviastar Airlines (275 words)

Published: 8/8/2000

The board of Aviastar have appointed 47-year-old Alexander Prikhodko, the General Direcor of Ulyanovsk Eastern International Airport, a 79.3% owned Aviastar subsidiary, to General Director of Aviastar Airlines, 100% owned by Aviastar. Prikhodko will remain Chairman of the airport and will be replaced by his deputy 49-year-old Alexander Gusev, who has worked at the airport as a director since 1996 after his transfer from Deputy Director of Nygan Airport in Russia's far north. Prior to taking on his role at Ulyanovsk Eastern International Airport, Prikhodko was the Deputy General Director of Simbirsk-Aviatransservice between 1995-1997. Ulyanovsk-Eastern International Airport is based around the former flight test facility of Aviastar and was founded in 1980, with a runway of 5100m, reflecting its original construction for the An-124 built at the plant. Separated in 1997 from the Aviastar plant to pursue business from customers other than Aviastar. The board of the airport is made of managers from a number of Aviastar affiliated companies including Aviastar Airlines,Aviastar-GSM(fuel provider), Aviastar Spectre(aircraft painting) and Aviastar Service. The airport gained international status in 1998 and was extensively renovated later that year with upgrades to its terminal building. The airport joined the Airport Association in 1999. A number of airlines operate out of the airport in additional to affiliated Aviastar Airlines, including Volga-Dnepr and Polyot. Aviastar Airlines was organized out of the air detachment attached to the plant and now operates a mixed fleet of 1 Mi-8T, 2 Yak-40, 2 An-26, 2 An-12 and 1 Il-76, with a reported plan to operate a Tu-204-100. The airline is a charter operation and provides VIP services or uses its specialist An-26s for testing ground communications equipment.

Article ID: 1972