Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise

Infobox Airline
airline = Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise

logo_size = 147
fleet_size = 52
destinations = 97 (34 countries)
IATA = FV
ICAO = PLK
callsign = Pulkovo
parent = Russia State Transport Company
company_slogan =
founded = 24 June, 1932
headquarters =
key_people =
hubs =
focus_cities =
frequent_flyer =
lounge =
alliance =
website = http://www.pulkovo.ru

Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise was an airline based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It operated the Pulkovo Airport and was 100% state owned. It was the third largest airline in Russia. On 29 October 2006 it completed a merger with government owned Russia State Transport Company to form a new company under the Rossiya name. [ [http://business.uzreport.com/mir.cgi?lan=e&id=23724 UzReport] retrieved 25 November 2006] [Flight International 10 April 2007]

History

The airline was named after the area where it is located, along with the village of Pulkovo and Pulkovo Observatory. The airline began on 24 June 1932 with the landing of two aircraft from Moscow at the newly-constructed Shosseynaya Airport south of Leningrad. Air travel expanded rapidly, and in 1939 Shosseynaya Airport operated 29 routes, carrying 6,305 passengers, 708 tons of cargo, and over 333 tons of mail.

The airport became known as Pulkovo in the late 1950s. The airport complex consists of two separate terminals which are so far away from each other than can they can be classified as separate airports.

Pulkovo Airlines used Aeroflot livery until ordered to change it in 1997 so to avoid confusion. Pulkovo Airlines joined IATA in June 2000.

As of 2003, it employs about 7,000 workers. In the first half of 2003, it carried 911,563 passengers, of 515,720 were domestic and 395,843 international and CIS flights. It also carried 3,753.6 tons of cargo, of which 3,138.5 was domestic and 615.1 international and CIS (this last was an increase of 34% over the same period in 2002).

Also, in 2006, Pulkovo completed its merger with Rossiya. They now operate as one company

Destinations

Incidents and accidents

*Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise airliner IL-86 RA-86060 crashed shortly after takeoff with 16 crew on board, at 3:25pm local time on July 28, 2002, from Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport while on a repositioning flight to Saint Petersburg. Witnesses reported seeing the aircraft enter a steep climb immediately after takeoff, bank left, and crash into a forest near the end of the runway. Initial examination of the aircraft's Digital Flight Data Recorder indicates that, two seconds after liftoff, the plane's horizontal stabilizer spontaneously shifted to a full nose-up position. The Captain immediately pushed the control yoke fully forward in an attempt to lower the aircraft's nose, but was unsuccessful in doing so. Two flight attendants aboard survived.Fact|date=April 2007
*On August 22 2006, Pulkovo Airlines Flight 612, a Tu-154 airliner with 160 passengers and 10 crew on board en route from Anapa to Saint Petersburg, crashed near Donetsk in Ukraine. The flight crew attempted to navigate through high clouds containing an extremely powerful thunderstorm, but abnormally high ambient temperature had decreased the lift. Airplane entered an uncontrolled spin and could not recover. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5274958.stm BBC News] ] All hands were lost. The investigation by [http://www.mak.ru/english/o_mak.html The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC)] determined that the causes of the crash were airplane entering a stall condition due to excessive angle of attack and lack of airspeed in manual flight mode due to insufficient control and cooperation among the flight crew members.
**Victoria Shcherbina (LJ user saint-autere) reacted to the news of the August 22 Tu-154 crash in eastern Ukraine, which killed all 170 people on board, by writing about the death of her father, IL-86 navigator of Pulkovo Airlines Valery Shcherbin, in a crash at Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport four years earlier, on July 28, 2002. [ [http://saint-autere.livejournal.com/2111.html Complete text in Russian] , [http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2006/08/25/russian-language-blogs-miscellanea-2/ in short in English] , and the article: [http://allrussiannews.com/news/26-august-2006-the-daughter-of-the-pilot-flying-by-planes-pulkovo--write-the-will.html "The daughter of the pilot: flying by Pulkovo write the will"] ]

External links

* [http://www.pulkovo.ru/ Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise]
* [http://www.pulkovo.ru/main/routs Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise destinations]
* [http://www.pulkovo.ru/main/plane Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Fleet official site]
* [http://www.ch-aviation.ch/aircraft.php?search=set&airline=FV&al_op=1 Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Fleet]

References