Air VIA was a

charter airline Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flight ...

with its head office in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

, that operated charter flights on behalf of European tour operators such as TUI and Thomas Cook. Most Air VIA flights operated from European destinations into Varna Airport and

Burgas Airport Burgas Airport is an international airport in southeast Bulgaria and the second largest in the country. It is near the northern neighbourhood of Sarafovo approximately from the city centre. The airport principally serves Burgas and other seas ...

, the airline also offered ACMI and wet lease subservices to many other clients and destinations.

Flight International ''Flight International'', formerly ''Flight'', is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", i ...

27 March 2007

History

The airline was founded in 1990. The company is licensed and certified according to the Bulgarian and EU regulations to transport passengers and cargo. Between 1990 and 2005, Air VIA operated with 5 new

Tupolev TU-154 The Tupolev Tu-154 (; NATO reporting name: "Careless") is a three-engined, medium-range, narrow-body airliner designed in the mid-1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. A workhorse of Soviet and (subsequently) Russian airlines for several decades, ...

M aircraft. Air VIA was founded by a group of private Bulgarian investors and initially performed charter flights for Bulgarian and leading European tour operators such as Neckermann,

TUI Travel TUI Travel PLC was a British leisure travel group headquartered in Crawley, West Sussex. The company was formed on 3 September 2007 by the merger of First Choice Holidays PLC and the Tourism Division of TUI AG, which owned 56.4% of it. The compa ...

, Jetairfly, Thomas Cook and Prodintour to and from Bulgarian seaside resorts. In 1994 the airline was acquired by Mr. Denis Barekov, a Bulgarian entrepreneur, who has investments in mining, glass production, real-estate and other industries. In 2005, Air VIA changed its fleet due to the ever growing competition, EU regulations, increasing fuel prices and higher customer requirements. In the summer of 2006, Air VIA started to operate Airbus A320 aircraft and phased out the dated Tupolev-154M. On 28 August 2015, Air Via added its first

Airbus A321-200 The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range, Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body, commercial passenger Twinjet, twin engine jet airliners; it carries 185 to 236 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was ...

to its fleet. Air Via operated for 25 years in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and in other regions for many different clients under ACMI or Charter contracts. The airline has operated in all European countries, but also in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Vietnam, Pakistan and in many other countries. In 2016, Air VIA ceased flight operations. At present, the company is considering different opportunities to restore its flight operations. In 2012, Mr. Denis Barekov and the Air Via management team assisted an investor from Iceland in the creation of WOW Air, the low-cost passenger airline based in Iceland. Air Via managed the complete flight operations of WOW Air until 2016 by providing its expertise, 3 aircraft (under WOW Air livery), its crews, maintenance and management staff. In 2016, Mr. Denis Barekov and the Air Via management team established, certified and managed Via Airways, a Bulgarian charter passenger airline, currently operating under the Fly2Sky brand.

Destinations

During the summer months, Air Via operated charter flights between the Bulgarian seaside airports

Burgas Burgas (, ), sometimes transliterated as Bourgas, is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, fourth-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, an ...

and

Varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city ** Varna Province ** Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna ** Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis * Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy * Varna (Šabac), a village in Serbia Asia * Var ...

and almost all countries in

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. During the winter months, Air Via operated under ACMI contracts in the Middle East and in Asia.

Fleet

Between 2005 and 2016, Air Via operated upto 5 aircraft A320. , the Air VIA fleet consisted of the following aircraft:

Incidents and accidents

* On 24 May 2013, Air VIA flight 502 from

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

overshot the runway at Varna Airport after touchdown because of tailwind. Two people on board were injured during evacuation. * On 4 July 2014, in clear weather and calm winds, the Air VIA's A320 flight 501 from

failed to land within length of runway 08R and touched down hard short of the runway threshold. The aircraft bounced and touched down for a second time at the very beginning of the runway (in the area of the 'piano keys') in a nose-high attitude resulting in a tailstrike. The landing run was completed normally and the A320 taxied to the main apron without assistance. Nobody was injured. Substantial damage occurred to the aft fuselage.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Air Via Defunct airlines of Bulgaria Airlines established in 1990 Airlines disestablished in 2016 2016 disestablishments in Bulgaria Defunct charter airlines Bulgarian companies established in 1990