KD avia has arrived at Gatwick Airport. Established as long ago as 1945 as the airline of Kaliningrad (formerly known as K”nigsberg), the carrier in more recent times has engaged on a policy of modernisation and upgrading.
It now operates a fleet of 12 Boeing 737-300 aircraft serving destinations as far east as Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, and London to the west.
Despite being the westernmost part of the Russian Federation, Kaliningrad has no land connection to the rest of Russia. It is an exclave surrounded by Lithuania to the north and Poland to the south.
Borderless travel to the main part of Russia is only possible by sea through the Baltic to St Petersburg or by air. It is an historical oddity with Gdansk in Poland the nearest major city. The whole area, know as Kaliningrad Oblast, covers 15,000sq k (5,800 sq mi) and has a population of around one million.
KD avia has appointed Flight Directors as its UK General Sales Agency (GSA).
Managing director, Paul Argyle, is most enthusiastic regarding the newcomer: ”KD avia is a great little airline with big ambitions to make Kaliningrad the quickest interline hub between Western Europe and Russia as it also owns the airport.”
The airline currently operates round trips on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday with a single class aircraft using Gatwick South. There are connections at Kaliningrad to and from Chelyabinsk, Kazan, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, Samara, St Petersburg, Tyumen, Ufa and Volgograd.