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Belavia Belarusian Airlines (Belarusian: "Белавія") is an airline based in Minsk, Belarus. It is the national airline of Belarus serving a network of European cities and the CIS. More than 300,000 passengers per year are carried. Its main base is Minsk International Airport.

History

On November 7, 1933, the first Belarusian air terminal opened in Minsk. In the next spring 3 Po-2 aircraft landed in Minsk. They became the first aircraft of the Belarusian air fleet. In 1936 the first regular air route between Minsk and Moscow was established. In the summer of 1940 the Belarusian civil aviation group was officially founded.

In 1964 the Tupolev Tu-124 aircraft received Belarusian registration. In 1973 the then new Tupolev Tu-134A began operating in Belarus. In 1983 Belarusian aviation started flying the new Tupolev Tu-154 planes. On February 1, 1985 a Soviet Tupolev Tu-134 crashed near Minsk-1 killing at least 58 out of 80 people on board. The accident happened due to clear ice ingestion into the engines as a result of inadequate deicing before takeoff. Both engines sustained serious damage and stalled.

Belavia was officially founded on 5 March 1996 by the Belarus government when the local Aeroflot division was nationalised and renamed. Between then and 1998 Belavia opened regular routes to Beijing, İstanbul, Larnaca, London, Prague, and Rome. In 1998 Belavia merged with Minskavia, acquiring several Antonov An-24, Antonov An-26 and Yakovlev Yak-40 aircraft in addition to existing fleet of Tupolev Tu-134 and Tupolev Tu-154 airplanes.

On 18 May, 2001 Belavia commenced a Minsk-Paris scheduled service. In 2003 Belavia started publishing an in-flight magazine Horizons in English, Russian and Belarusian (partially). On 16 October, 2003 Belavia signed a leasing agreement for its first Boeing 737-500 aircraft. In 2004 Belavia further extended operations and acquired one more Boeing 737. On 26 June, 2004 Belavia opened a new route to Hanover, Germany.

Incidents and accidents

At one time, Belavia enjoyed a clean record. On January 23rd, 2006, a Belavia Pilot ejected from the cockpit of his Yak-40 in an apparent suicide attempt after overdosing on anti-depressants. Little is known about the circumstances of the accident, but 47 people onboard were killed with another 23 injured.

Its most serious accident to-date was a shattered windshield on a Yakovlev Yak-40 upon landing in Prague. The canopy of the Yak-40 burst on January 6, 2003 just after the aircraft entered Czech airspace; two Czech Air Force fighters accompanied the plane to a safe landing in Ruzyně International Airport.

Services

Belavia operates the following services to international scheduled destinations (as of September 2006):

• Frankfurt
• Istanbul
• Kaliningrad
• Kiev
• Larnaca
• London
• Moscow
• Paris
• Rome
• Shannon
• Simferopol
• Sochi
• Tbilisi
• Tel Aviv
• Warsaw
• Yerevan

Fleet

The Belavia fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of January 2005):

External links

• Belavia
• Belavia Fleet

• Airlines of Belarus