Azur Air should not be confused with Azul Airlines.
| Airline: | Azur Air |
| Iata: | ZF |
| Icao: | AZV |
| Callsign: | AZUR AIR |
| Subsidiaries: | Azur Air Ukraine |
| Headquarters: | Moscow, Russia |
| Fleet Size: | 16 |
| Website: | azurair.ru |
Azur Air (Russian: Азур Эйр), formerly Katekavia and stylised as azurair, is a charter airline and former regional airline in Russia. Initially it was based in Krasnoyarsk Cheremshanka Airport, the domestic airport serving Krasnoyarsk, and its destinations were all within Krasnoyarsk Krai.[1] Nowadays it mainly serves leisure destinations such as the route Moscow to Bodrum, offering an All-Business class charter.[2]
The airline started operations in 1995 and operates regional flights out of Krasnoyarsk Cheremshanka Airport and Krasnoyarsk-Yemelyanovo Airport.[3] [4] The airline also operates charter services to Siberia and Yakutia. It carried around 122,000 passengers in 2009, and in 2010 started to acquire larger aircraft, mainly the Tupolev Tu-134. As of 3 April 2014, it had three Tupolev Tu-134s.[4]
In April 2014, the airline commenced scheduled flights between larger Krasnoyarsk-Yemelyanovo Airport and further cities in Siberia: Surgut and Tomsk. The airline received international media and social media attention in 2014, when a video emerged of passengers on a scheduled flight from Igarka to Krasnoyarsk disembarking pre-departure to push their plane in temperatures of minus 52 degrees Celsius after its chassis froze.[5]
In 2015, Katekavia handed over its fleet to Turukhan Airlines. Katekavia was rebranded as a leisure carrier and renamed Azur Air.[6] [7]
In February 2018, the Russian aviation authority RosAviatsiya announced that Azur Air faces a suspension of its operational licence by 20 March 2018 if the carrier does not resolve alleged safety violations by then. As this would lead to the shut down of all flight operations, Russian tourism agency RosTourism advised tour operators to not sell tickets on Azur Air for the time being.[8]
On 8 April 2022, the US Department of Commerce restricted flights on aircraft manufactured in the US for Aeroflot, Aviastar, Azur Air, Belavia, Rossiya and Utair. It seems the US wants to reclaim ownership of the intellectual property. On 16 June, the US broadened its restrictions on the six airlines after violations of the sanctions regime were detected. The effect of the restrictions is to ground the US-manufactured part of its fleet.[9]
As of July 2022, Azur Air was forced to drastically reduce its international network due to sanctions against Russia as well as the recall of several aircraft by their lessors in accordance with these.[10]
The Azur Air fleet consists of the following aircraft as of January 2024:[11]
| Aircraft | In service | Orders | Passengers | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | Y | Total | |||||
| 8 | - | - | 238 | 238 | |||
| 1 | 72 | - | 72 | 1 equipped in all-business class configuration. | |||
| 6 | - | - | 336 | 336 | |||
| 1 | - | 7 | 524 | 531 | |||
| Total | 16 | - | |||||
Azur Air additionally formerly operated the following aircraft types:[11]
See main article: Katekavia Flight 9357.