Romania's Star East Airlines to add maiden aircraft

Romania's Star East Airlines to restart with Smartwings ACMI

Smartwings (Czechia) (QS, Prague Václav Havel) will wet-lease a single A320-200 from Romania's Star East Airlines (4R, Bucharest Baneasa) during the summer 2022 season, marking the resumption of the latter's core activities after a break of over a year.

The Czech carrier confirmed to Romania's BoardingPass.ro that the wet-lease will begin on June 4 and continue through September 30, 2022. Smartwings has yet to file the schedule.

YR-SEA (msn 357), Star East's only aircraft, has been parked at Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen since September 1, 2021, following the completion of short-term charter operations on behalf of the American government during the evacuation of Afghanistan. However, except for this ad-hoc operation, the 29.8-year-old Airbus narrowbody has been grounded since January 2020, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows.

The Romanian ACMI/charter specialist remained active in 2020 and 2021 using its now-retired B737-400, YR-SEB (msn 25361). The aircraft has been parked at Cairo International since May 26, 2022, and is no longer on Star East Airlines' Air Operator's Certificate (AOC).

Smartwings' in-house fleet...

Romania's Animawings secures first aircraft, an A320

Animawings (A2, Bucharest Henri Coanda) has taken delivery of its first aircraft, A320-200 SX-DGI (msn 3162), as part of its certification and launch procedures.

The 13-year-old jet features 174 economy class seats and was last in service for Aegean Airlines (A3, Athens), which owns a 25% stake in the Romanian start-up, in mid-March after which it was ferried to East Midlands for repainting and preparation. Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows it was then ferried from the United Kingdom to Bucharest Henri Coanda on June 5. It will shortly be added to the Romanian register as YR-AGA.

Cristian Pandel, whose Netherlands-based leisure firm Memento Group controls the remaining 75% of Animawings, told Economica.net last week that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline still expects to run summer charter flights for Romanian tour operators to 19 tourist destinations in Greece, Turkey, Spain, Egypt, and Tunisia.

Although there are plans to grow the fleet, Animawings will launch with a single aircraft but will add more capacity as and when demand dictates.

According to...

CSA Czech Airlines to enter Denmark-Iceland market

CSA Czech Airlines (OK, Prague Václav Havel) will launch a daily Prague-Copenhagen Kastrup-Reykjavik Keflavik service on October 28 using B737-800 aircraft from its parent Smartwings (Czechia) (QS, Prague Václav Havel), Routes Online has reported.

The new daily flights will replace a seasonal 3x weekly summer-only service linking the Czech and Icelandic capitals. The new routing will allow CSA to offer flights to Iceland on a year-round basis.

CSA is filling a capacity void left by WOW air (Reykjavik Keflavik) following the low-cost carrier's bankruptcy. Copenhagen is the second largest market from Iceland after London with 30 weekly flights offered by SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) and Icelandair (FI, Reykjavik Keflavik) combined at present, according to ch-aviation capacities.

CSA already operates another route outside its Czech home market offering six weekly Hamburg Helmut Schmidt-Gothenburg Landvetter flights currently operated on its behalf by Star East Airlines (4R, Bucharest Baneasa).

Shareholder dispute puts Smartwings recapitalisation on hold