Belavia
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Belavia Belarusian Airlines (Belarusian: "Белавія") is a national airlines carrier of Belarus. It was officially founded on 5 March 1996 by the Belarusian government when the local Aeroflot division was nationalised and renamed. Belarus has a history of air transport dating back some 60 years.
The current fleet comprises the old Soviet aircarft and two Boeings. With Minsk as its base, Belavia is steadily increasing its network of routes throughout Europe. Currently Belavia has offices in 12 European countries. International routes covered by Belavia include Austria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland, Russia, Turkey, UK, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Over all, Belavia has older air fleet and somewhat lower standards of service in comparison to big Western airlines, but generally the prices are somewhat lower. Also, Belarusian citizens usually get additional discounts.
Belavia has the ICAO Code "BRY" and IATA Code "B2". They transport more than 300,000 passengers per year. Flights include international, passenger, cargo and charter.
So far Belavia has enjoyed a clean record, its most serious accident to-date being shattered windshield on Yak-40 upon landing in Prague.
History
- On November 7, 1933, the first Belarusian air terminal opened in Minsk. Next spring three planes Po-2 landed in Minsk. They became the first airplanes belongning to Belarusian air fleet.
- In 1936 the first regular air route between Minsk and Moscow was established.
- In the summer of 1940 Belarusian civil aviation group was officially founded.
- In 1993 Belarusian civial aviation fleet organized a large-scale charter program with China and Middle East. Thousands of tourists from Belarus visited United Arab Emirates, China, India, Korea, Pakistan.
- In 1995 - 1998 Belavia opened regular routes to Beijing, Istanbul, Larnaca, London, Prague, and Rome.
- In 1998 Belavia merged with Minskavia, acquiring several An-24, An-26, Yak-40 planes in addition to existing fleet of Tu-134 and Tu-154 airplanes.
- In 2003 Belavia started publishing an in-flight magazine "Horizons" in English, Russian and Belarusian (partially).
- On 16 October, 2003 Belavia signed leasing aggreement for its first "Boeing-737/500" aircraft. In 2004 Belavia further extended operations and took one more "Boeing 737".
