Skol Airlines
Russian charter airline
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Skol Airlines was a Russian charter operator providing regular passenger flights and cargo charters across Eastern and Western Siberia; its clients included Alrosa and Gazprom amongst others.[1] The company also had its own 23 hectare heliport, the 100-room hostel on-site, dining room, Mi-8 hangar, helicopter filling station and a certified aircraft maintenance base. The company was notable for its successful efforts to curtail the 2007 Greek forest fires.[1]
| |||||||
| Founded | 2000 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ceased operations | 2022 | ||||||
| Hubs | Surgut | ||||||
| Secondary hubs | Khanty-Mansiysk | ||||||
| Fleet size | 35 | ||||||
| Headquarters | Surgut | ||||||
| Website | http://www.skol.ru | ||||||
In mid-2021, Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency banned it from operating 30 helicopters and five light-engine L-410s due to debts to GTLK.[2]
As of December 2021, the airline was banned from operating within the European Union.[3][4]
The airlines' operator certificate was revoked after it went bankrupt in 2022.[5][6]
The bankruptcy trustee of LLC “Airline SKOL,” Alexey Belokopyt, has announced an open auction for the debtor’s helicopters. Four aircraft will be put up for sale.[7]
Fleet as of 2012
| Aircraft type[1] | Active | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mil Mi-8T | 10 | |
| Mil Mi-26T | 7 | |
| Mil Mi-171 | 5 | |
| Mil Mi-8AMT | 5 | |
| Eurocopter AS350B3 | 3 | |
| Yakovlev Yak-40 | 3 | VIP Configuration |
| Cessna Caravan | 3 | |
| Let L-410 Turbolet | 1 |
Accidents & Incidents
- On 29 November 2015, a Aérospatiale AS.350 Écureuil helicopter operated by the airline “SKOL” crashed seven kilometres from the settlement of Kedrovy in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. Four people were killed in the accident. The helicopter was transporting employees of the oil company “RITEK Beloyarskneft” under contract with Lukoil.[8][9]
- On 21 October 2016, Skol Airlines Flight 9375, a Mi-8 helicopter with 19 passengers and a crew of 3 impacted terrain in poor weather conditions, with 19 fatalities.
