Carrier abandons Russian fleet(260 words)

Published: 11/15/2000

ELK Airways has started the construction of a new hangar at Tallinn airport. According to a company spokesman the hangar, which is being built on the site of a factory, will use the plant's access roads and offices and is scheduled to be completed by next spring. The hanger is part of larger facility being built by the airline and will be used to house 5 of the airline's aircraft and its offices. It will join a fuel terminal, which is due to be completed in the near future, and a 350 square metre technical and repair centre and a garage for specialist utility vehicles. The new facility, according to the airline, has been made necessary by ELK's gradual replacement of its Soviet-made fleet with Western aircraft. ELK's active fleet presently consists of a Tu-154M and Tu-134A, an An-26 cargo aircraft, a Czech L-410 and a BAe Jetstream 31. Currently the Russian aircraft are used on flights to Moscow and St. Petersburg, and on some charter flights, but will be replaced by Western aircraft according to Alexander Beloussov, General Director of the airline.In the near future ELK plans to acquire an additional Jetstream, with a plan to acquire another five Jetstreams over time. The change to a focus on a Western fleet for ELK, comes as something of a surprise, given that Belousov was quite vocal in 1999 about his belief, that despite some of the shortcomings of the airline's Russian aircraft, he believed they offered higher returns for the operator. Privately owned ELK Airways was founded in October 1991 and has regular domestic routes from Tallinn to Kardla and international routes from Tallinn to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Minsk, Warsaw, from Helsinki to Tartu. It plans to open new scheduled routes over the next year from Tallinn to Kiev, Riga and Prague. ELK also flies charter flights over Northern Europe and Scandinavia.

Article ID: 2199