AtlasGlobal (Istanbul Airport) is set to take delivery of its first aircraft, an A321-200 TC-ATB (cn 1503), which was recently painted in Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen. According to Turkish media reports, Atlasjet plans to develop the carrier's fleet with 15 aircraft - likely all Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) machinery.
Atlasjet Global is the latest in the Atlasjet Airlines (Antalya) stable of airlines which includes Jet One (Almaty International) in Kazakhstan, ZagrosJet (Erbil) in Iraq, and the stalled Atlasjet UA (Lviv) in Ukraine.
Atlasjet UA's future continues to hang in the balance after Kiev recently passed legislation preventing carriers whose foreign ownership quota exceeds 49% from being assigned international traffic rights and from operating international charter services.
Under the new rules, compliant foreign-backed carriers will only be allowed to enter the international market after they have operated domestically for at least a year. The State Aviation Administration of Ukraine will then allocate international rights based on the frequency of domestic flights the airline operates.
The Ukrainian government has agreed to suspend the implementation of the laws pending talks with affected carriers, including Wizz Air (W6, Budapest), whose Wizz Air Ukraine (Kyiv Igor Sikorsky) subsidiary could be forced to quit the country should they be enforced.
