Kish Air

Infobox Airline
airline = Kish Air
کیش ایر


image_size = 150
IATA = Y9
ICAO = IRK
callsign = KISHAIR
founded = 1989
ceased =
hubs = Mehrabad Airport
secondary_hubs =
focus_cities =
frequent_flyer =
lounge =
alliance =
subsidiaries =
fleet_size = 12
destinations = 18
parent =
company_slogan = We Care About You
headquarters = Tehran, Iran
key_people = Capt Reza Nakhjavani (Chairman & CEO)
website = http://www.kishairline.com/

Kish Air (PerB|کیش ایر) is an airline based in Tehran, Iran. It operates international, domestic and charter services as a scheduled carrier. Its main base is Mehrabad Airport, Tehran.cite news | title= Directory: World Airlines | work= Flight International | page= 101 | date= 2007-04-03]

History

The airline was established on December 16, 1989 and started operations in 1989. It is owned by Kish Free Zone Organisation (79%), Kish Investment and Development (11%) and Kish Development and Servicing (10%). It has 303 employees (at March 2007).

Kish Air is also closely connected with a chain of professionally maintained and well regarded English language institutes located in major cities throughout Iran bearing its name. They were originally established solely to teach their own employees English, but were eventually opened up to the public as demand sharply increased for quality English language instruction. Though the airline itself ceased ownership of the institutes long ago, the chain retains the name and Kish Air pilots and flight attendants continue to be sent there for language instruction. Fact|date=June 2007

To start its passenger operations, after receiving temporary operations permission, the airline leased 2 aircraft (one Tupolev Tu-134 and one Antonov An-24) from Bulgaria Airlines on a wet lease basis. Kish Air received its air operator certificate (AOC) in 1990 after demonstrating it's competence to the Civil Aviation authorities, during its first year of operations, thus becoming the first private company to receive its AOC from Civil Aviation of Iran. At this time the company began wet leasing three Tupolev Tu-154Ms from Russian leasing companies, returning the previously leased Bulgarian aircraft. The company also wet leased two Yakovlev Yak-42D aircraft from Russia. Towards the end of 1992 the company was at the verge of bankruptcy, and most of the key managers were replaced by a new team, most of whom are still running the company successfully today. In 1999 Kish Air having enough financial strength, decided to replace its wet leased fleet with dry leased and purchased aircraft, and within a year was able to operate 2 dry leased and one purchased Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft, and hire and train the required air crew and maintenance personnel. At present Kish Air is operating a fleet of six medium range McDonnell Douglas MD-83 and Tupolev Tu-154M and six short range Fokker 50 on its domestic and international routes.Fact|date=June 2007

Destinations

Kish Air operates services to the following destinations: [http://www.kishairline.com/destinations/listEn]

*Domestic destinations:
**Kish Island
**Tehran
**Bandar Abbas
**Ahvaz
**Esfahan
**Mashhad
**Shiraz
**Tabriz
**Abadan
**Shahrekord
**Qeshm
**Mahshahr
**Asalouyeh
**Hamadan

*International destinations:
**Dubai
**Abu Dhabi
**Sharjah
**Istanbul

Fleet

The Kish Air fleet includes the following aircraft (at April 2008):

*5 Fokker 50
*1 Fokker 100 (which is leased from Iran Aseman Airlines)
*2 McDonnell Douglas MD-82 (which are operated by Khors Aircompany)
*3 McDonnell Douglas MD-83 (two aircraft are operated by Khors Aircompany and one aircraft is operated by UM Airlines)
*2 Tupolev Tu-154M

ee also

*Kish Air Flight 707

References

External links

* fa icon [http://www.kishairline.com/ Kish Air official website]