Avion Express

Avion Express
IATA ICAO Callsign
X9[1] NVD NORDVIND
Fleet size 18
Parent company Eyjafjoll SAS
Headquarters Vilnius, Lithuania
Key people Darius Kajokas (CEO)
Revenue 79,9 mEUR (2017) [2]
Website avionexpress.aero

Avion Express is the largest narrow-body ACMI provider in the world and the largest airline in Lithuania headquartered in Vilnius.

History

Avion Express was established in 2005 as Nordic Solutions Air Services. At that time, the airline was operating four Saab 340 cargo and passenger aircraft.

In 2008 the company was re-branded to its current name Avion Express. In 2010 Avion Express was acquired by French investment company Eyjafjoll SAS, formed by Avion Capital Partners of Switzerland along with other investors. The new owners set up a long-term plan to develop the airline as an ACMI specialist. The first step of this plan was to introduce Airbus A320 into fleet.

In 2011 Avion Express introduced its first Airbus A320,[3] which was the first Airbus aircraft to be registered in Lithuania. In December, two more Airbus A320s were added to the fleet.

In 2013, Avion Express successfully passed the IOSA Operational Safety Audit and consequently obtained an IATA registration. The last Saab 340 cargo aircraft was removed from operation in March 2013.[4]

By summer of 2014, the airline was operating a fleet of 9 Airbus A320s and 2 Airbus A319s. That same year Avion Express established a subsidiary company Dominican Wings,[5] a low-cost airline based in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

In summer 2017 Avion Express introduced Airbus A321 aircraft to the company’s fleet.[6]

In June 2017, Avion Express announced that it had sold its 65% stake in Dominican Wings to the President of the Company, Mr. Victor Pacheco.[7][8]

Clients

Over the past few years Avion Express has operated for a myriad of airlines. The list of the latter includes:

In 2018 Avion Express started providing ACMI services to SunExpress, which is a subsidiary of Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa.

Partnerships

In August 2017, Avion Express signed partnership agreement with the Lithuanian Aviation Academy (VGTU A. Gustaitis’ Aviation Institute). The main focus of the partnership is providing students of Aircraft Piloting and technical programmes with opportunities to learn more about aviation and the company, to gain experience while doing internships and to join the airline after their studies.[9]

Since autumn 2017 Avion Express has also been collaborating with BAA Training, one of the leading aviation training centers in Northern Europe, on the cadet programme[10] for people with little or no flying experience. According to this partnership, BAA Training is training and providing pilots to fill the vacancies for the expanding fleet of Avion Express.[11]

Fleet

Avion Express operates 18 Airbus A320 family aircraft.[12] The Avion Express fleet consists of the following aircraft:[12]

Avion Express Fleet
Aircraft In Service Orders Passengers
C Y Total
Airbus A319-100 1 — 8 132 140
Airbus A320-200 12 — 8 150 158
— 174 174
— 180 180
Airbus A321-200 5 — — 220 220
Total 18 —

Production

Providing full-service ACMI, Avion Express is constantly growing in terms of fleet and production. In July 2017 Avion Express broke the milestone of 200 block hours per day, reaching its highest daily result so far[13]. During 2018 Avion Express plans to fly 52,000 block hours – this would be the all-time high for the company (26% growth compared to 2017)[14].

References

  1. ↑ "IATA - Airline and Airport Code Search". Iata.org. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  2. ↑ Archived 2014-02-23 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ http://www.acp.aero/. "Avion Capital Partners - News - Avion Express launches Airbus 320 Passenger Operation". acp.aero. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  4. ↑ "Avion Express retires its third and final Saab 340(F) freighter". ch-aviation. Retrieved 2018-05-13.
  5. ↑ 2018, UBM (UK) Ltd. "Dominican Wings Receives First Airbus". Routesonline.com. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  6. ↑ "Airline for Airline: Avion Express". Flyavex.com. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  7. ↑ "Avion Express sells its Shares in Dominican Wings". Newsroom.aviator.aero. 30 June 2017. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  8. ↑ "Dominican Wings relaunched as a ULCC". Ch-aviation.com. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  9. ↑ Gaumina, e-solution: VGTU ITSC &. "Vilniaus Gedimino technikos universitetas - VGTU". Vgtu.lt. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  10. ↑ "BAA Training collaborates with Avion Express on cadet programme". Civilaviation.training. 3 October 2017. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  11. ↑ "Join Avion Express Cadet Programme". Baatraining.com. 16 November 2017. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  12. 1 2 "Airline for Airline: Avion Express". Flyavex. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  13. ↑ http://www.avionexpress.aero/press/avion-express-reaches-200-block-hours-per-day-milestone/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. ↑ https://newsroom.aviator.aero/avion-express-to-reach-its-all-time-high-in-production-in-2018/. Missing or empty |title= (help)

Media related to Avion Express at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.