Baltia Air Lines начинает полеты?

К

Карим

Местный
Это они серьезно? Вообще, не в первый раз слышу это название, но никогда не принимал его всерьез... Может кто-нибудь что-нибудь определенное про них сказать? Сайт у них имеется - www.baltia.com

http://www.avia.ru/news/?id=1218719067

Американская авиакомпания Baltia Air Lines после почти 20-летнего ожидания начинает полеты в РФ

14 августа 2008
/Гудок.RU/
Американская компания Baltia Air Lines, базирующаяся в нью-йоркском аэропорту им. Джона Кеннеди, планирует после почти двадцатилетнего ожидания открыть полеты в Россию, сообщается на сайте авиакомпании.

Первым трансатлантическим маршрутом компании станет рейс из Нью-Йорка в Санкт-Петербург, старт которого запланирован уже на 2008 год. Затем в 2009 году Baltia начнет полеты и в российскую столицу.

Среди направлений, которые начиная с 2009 года откроет Baltia - Рига, Вильнюс и Таллин, Минск, Киев.

Как отмечается на сайте авиакомпании, Baltia планирует осуществлять перевозки пассажиров, грузовые и почтовые перевозки из Нью-Йорка в Прибалтику, Украину, Россию и Белоруссию. О дате первого полета компании будет объявлено позднее, осуществить его планируется на самолете Boeing-747.

Компания была учреждена в штате Нью-Йорк в августе 1989 года для обеспечения регулярного сообщения между Россией и США, а также странами бывшего Советского Союза. Двумя годами позднее департамент транспорта США согласовал компании направления для обеспечения воздушного сообщения с Санкт-Петербургом и Ригой.

Однако позднее из-за недостаточного оборотного капитала департамент транспорта отозвал лицензию на ранее выданные направления без права на повторную заявку. С этого момента компания продолжила исследование рынка и планирование, а также занялась поиском дополнительных средств. Только в октябре 2007 года Baltia согласовала с департаментом транспорта начало полетов из Нью-Йорка в Санкт-Петербург.

Из направлений, которые Baltia планирует осуществлять из США, другие авиакомпании выполняют аналогичные рейсы только по маршруту Нью-Йорк - Москва.

Авиакомпания Baltia имеет две зарегистрированные торговые марки - Baltia и Voyager class
 
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Пока сайтом все дело и ограничивается. В Кеннеди о них и не слышали. Если им позвонить трубку поднимает один и тот же человек. Их генеральный. Мне думается через них кто-то (с не очень хорошими намерениями в этой жизни) отмывает деньги.

Хорошо бы если я не прав. Больше конкуренции - веселее жизнь.
 
Да, вот похоже, серьёзно!
DOT gives final approval to Baltia Air Lines
Friday, March 20, 2009
On March 10, 2009, after presidential review, the United States Department of Transportation issued its Final Order to Baltia Air Lines. The Final Order authorizes Baltia to engage in foreign non-stop air transportation of persons, property and mail from John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York to Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg, Russia. Based at Terminal 4 at JFK, Baltia Air Lines is the only Part 121 American Air Carrier being developed in the U.S. today.
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Так только как они собираются летать на В747 в грода Балтии:eek:?
Вот только, странное у меня ощущение - не знают куда пристроить флот потётых 747-200. Вот похоже нашли....:|
 
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Я случайно наткнулся на их application в DoT пару лет назад, думал это шутка такая.

Подождите, я все правильно понимаю?

Чувак эмигрировал в Америку в 1976 году, основал там бизнес по производству кефира для русских на Брайтон-бич, но была у него одна мечта - открыть свою авиакомпанию. Он значит все посчитал (у него там, по крайней мере на бумаге, еще какой-то бывший деятель из PanAm в соучастниках), решил, что экономически целесообразно начинать с полетов на одном самолете (!), причем Boeing 747-300 (!), в трехклассной компоновке (!) раз в неделю (!) в Пулково - а что, выгодная рыночная ниша! И то ли 15, то ли 20 лет выбивал разрешение... и вот получил его и обещает начать летать с лета. Я ничего не пропустил?

Пойти что ли тоже инвесторов поискать...???? :confused2:
 
тут вспомнилась фраза одного героя 20-секундной роли в балабановском Брате2

"маладой человек, мы - ръусские, не обманываем друг друга"

:confused2:
 
Эх, моща!!!:)

http://www.baltia.com/routemap.html

Хорошо также и вот это:

In 2009, Baltia plans to inaugurate non-stop service between New York’s JFK airport and Moscow. An inaugural gala is planned for the occasion. Subsequently, Baltia plans to provide additional air service between Moscow and St. Petersburg, linking Baltia's non-stop service to Moscow with its non-stop flight to St. Petersburg. As a result, Baltia will offer two flights daily from JFK to Moscow and St. Petersburg
 
Ну, и еще до кучи: вот очень свежее (26 июля) интервью с их VP Finance - чувак хорошо прирабатывает к пенсии, заработанной, я уверен, в более приличной компании (гусары, ни слова про интервьюершу:)):

http://www.corporateprofile.com/?p=347


А вот здесь (http://www.indeed.com/forum/job/fli...s-hottest-United-Sates-startup-Airline/t60823) - какой-то левоватый форум, где некий truthseeker из Бруклина рассказывает про них следующее:

They are not Squandering the money...but they are not spending it smart. The CEO is very frugal and passionate and not taking a salary or anything like that. The problem is that this is his dream, but he has no aviation background and does not know the culture. As for the business plan; there is none. There is the "dream" and what he wants to achieve, but there are no timelines, no contracts, no anything "business" related other than sales pitches and "commercials". I am not bashing, His dream is real and the potential is great, he just does not know how to get there and refuses to admit it or let those he has around him direct him. He has surrounded himself with some great talent that has great background, but he does not listen to them when they advise him; he consider himself an "expert". So many business have failed by those self diluding themselves. He is now going to try to buy the hull of the aircraft discussed before and advertise it to the FAA (and investors) as "Aircraft" which implies engines, interior etc. Surely he must realize the FAA has a databank with the aircraft serial number and they will be looking it up. It will tell condition and dispositon of the airframe and he will lose credibility with the only agency that can make or break him
 
Ну вот и самолет нашелся.... ну, все - теперь точняк начинаем летать!:)

http://www.baltia.com/8_19a_09.html

Baltia Air Lines agrees to buy its first Boeing 747 jetliner

August 19, 2009, 11:11 am EDT

NEW YORK (AP) -- Start-up carrier Baltia Air Lines Inc. said Wednesday it agreed to buy its first Boeing 747 jetliner.

Baltia plans to fly between New York and St. Petersburg, Russia, then expand service to Moscow and cities in the former Soviet Union.

According to its Web site, ticket sales are not yet available, subject to regulatory approval.

Barry Clare, the airline's vice president of finance, said the company has begun the process of getting certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The airline has submitted operating manuals and must hire and train pilots and crew, conduct an evacuation test and proving flights. Clare said Baltia hopes to get FAA certification by year end.

Clare said the airline will start with just the one plane and believes it can generate $100 million a year in revenue if it can fill that plane nearly two-thirds full on New York-St. Petersburg flights. The company also plans to fly cargo and mail.

According to regulatory filings, CEO Igor Dmitrowsky, a U.S. citizen born in Latvia, owns 43 percent of the company. In the March quarter, the company issued 4.8 million shares for cash and 19.9 million in exchange for services at 3 to 5 cents each, and it issued 44 million shares for the exercise of options by Dmitrowsky.

The company missed a deadline for filing its second-quarter financial report with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and has been late in making other filings.

Over-the-counter shares of Baltia were trading for less than 4 cents each on Wednesday morning (8/20/09).

For more information on Baltia visit the company web site at: www.Baltia.com

SOURCE Baltia Air Lines, Inc.

CONTACT
Barry Clare
VP Finance
Baltia Air Lines
(718) 244-8880
 
Ну и еще - до кучи. Читаешь их "бизнес-план" и диву даешься - люди на каком-то другом глобусе живут:

http://theairlineblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/baltia-air-lines-20-year-old-startup.html

Baltia Air Lines, the 20 year old startup

Posted by Tom on Wednesday, August 19, 2009

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a press release that said that a New York-based startup, Baltia Air Lines, had signed a letter of intent to purchase a Boeing 747. Who the heck is Baltia? I did a little research (mostly in the form of 10-Q filings with the SEC) and turned up some basic history about the airline.

Baltia was founded on August 24, 1989 (that's right - a startup airline older than I am) with the goal of connecting New York-JFK to the then-Soviet Union. In June 1991, the carrier received permission from the DOT to start flying between New York and St. Petersburg (then Leningrad). They also were to fly between JFK and Riga, Lativa, and from there serve Kiev, Minsk, and Tbilisi, Georgia. That same month, Baltia expressed interest in grabbing two Boeing 767s to fly to Riga and St. Petersburg, as well as some 737-200s to use on connecting flights to the three other destinations from Riga. That was all in 1991 - and then the news articles about Baltia stopped, until just recently. It was as though Baltia just dropped off the radar for the better part of the last twenty years.

So now for the obvious question - why, twenty years later, are they still in the startup process? What's taken them so long? In a nutshell: lots of financial problems. Let's take a look at the timeline (which has some holes in it, but should be helpful nonetheless):

1991: The airline's "financing efforts were destroyed" as a result of the August 1991 attempted coup d'état in the USSR, according to an SEC filing. "Subsequently the route authorities terminated for dormancy."
1995: Baltia reapplies for the JFK-St. Petersburg route.
1996: DOT reissues JFK-St. Petersburg route authority to Baltia, "based upon reexamination of the Company's operating plan and fitness as a US air carrier." By then, the airline had apparently dropped plans for Riga and instead focused on serving St. Petersburg with a single Boeing 747.

1998: Baltia makes a $100,000 down payment on a Boeing 747-200 owned by Cathay Pacific.

1999: Baltia finally "had all the variables" needed for flight operations in place, except for enough working capital. The airline was supposed to raise the cash through an IPO, but that failed, and the DOT revoked its route authority, telling it once again to come back when it had the money.
October 2007: Baltia files once again for non-stop service between JFK and St. Petersburg. The third time must really be the charm, because it's granted by the DOT.

December 2008: DOT declares Baltia "fit, willing and able" to fly.
Currently: Baltia is "conducting the FAA Air Carrier Certification process under Part 121. Upon completion of the Air Carrier Certification, Baltia intends to commence scheduled non-stop service from its Base of Operations at Terminal 4, JFK... to Pulkovo II Int'l Airport of St. Petersburg."
I called up Barry Clare, Baltia's VP of Finance, to ask him about his carrier's long, long history. Why has it taken so long, and why will this latest attempt be the one that works? Clare said that the airline had many setbacks raising capital in the 1990s, and part of that had to do with the fact that the airline wanted to launch with several airplanes. The latest attempt, Clare notes, will see Baltia starting out with only one airplane, a Boeing 747 purchased from an American carrier (since the deal is still in the works, he could not divulge which model or from which airline it was purchased).

"It was always a lack of capital, not a lack of know-how... it's been a bunch of fiascos with Wall Street professionals who make promises and never delivered," he said. "This time around, we went out and raised the capital that we felt was necessary to launch, even before we submitted our application to the DOT in 2007. We raised $2.7 million... it looks like this time around, Baltia Air Lines will fly." Clare expects that the first flight will take off before the end of the year, and that the airline is seeking to codeshare with a "major American airline" to provide some feed into JFK.

Baltia's planes will be configured in a four-class layout: Voyager Class (coach), Super Voyager (what Clare calls a "step up from regular coach), business, and first. "Service aboard the plane will be second to none," says Clare, noting that there will only be 296 seats on the main deck of the 747.

The airline plans to gradually ramp up its schedule. Baltia is only planning on flying one round trip between JFK and St. Petersburg for the first month; the second month will see three round trips per week, to be increased to five trips by the third month. After the first four months, the airline plans to take delivery of a second 747 and start service to Moscow and start with the same schedule frequency, to be followed by Minsk, Kiev, and so on. "Within a two year period, we'll have five aircraft in the air servicing the Baltic region, generating close to $500 million in revenue."

As for finances, Clare claims that one 747 will generate $40 million in profit off of $100 million in revenue annually, even with a 64% load factor. Voyager tickets will be between $800 and $1,200; Super Voyager seats will be around $2,000 apiece. Business class seats will go in the range of $4,000 to $5,000, while first class seats will set you back a slick $16,000. "First class has only twelve seats," explains Clare. "It's sort of a gimmick because we want to show that we have that kind of service available. Even though service will be superior throughout the entire aircraft, first class service will really be far superior. The entire upper deck... will be dedicated as a first class lounge, with a bar and gourmet chefs, live entertainment, strictly for the first class passengers... If the [first class] seats get filled, great; if not, it's there to show that Baltia Air Lines has that kind of service." The airline is hiring "stewards" from "fine restaurants, not flight attendants who work for other airlines that have bad habits. The experience will be incredible... like the grand old ocean liners."

But I've got a feeling that this isn't the best time to be starting up a premium-travel carrier. Remember that whole slew of premium transatlantic carriers a couple years back? Silverjet, eos, MaxJet? They're all gone, and BA's OpenSkies is on life support. Baltia may not be business-class only, like those airlines, but it's clear that they're going after the upscale traveler here. Premium travel has taken a huge hit, and it's not likely to bounce back anytime soon. And while the airline understandably touts its non-stop New York to Eastern Europe service, is it going to be able to compete with the likes of Lufthansa and Air France, which offer frequent connecting flights to the same destinations that Baltia will serve? It's trying to be a niche carrier, but I'm not sure that that niche is big enough, even for a small carrier like Baltia.

(Oh, and you'd think that an upscale airline would choose a better name for its frequent flyer program than Freeloaders, but that's what Baltia's done. Not kidding.)
 
Карим сказал(а):
first class seats will set you back a slick $16,000. "First class has only twelve seats," explains Clare. "It's sort of a gimmick because we want to show that we have that kind of service available. Even though service will be superior throughout the entire aircraft, first class service will really be far superior. The entire upper deck... will be dedicated as a first class lounge, with a bar and gourmet chefs, live entertainment, strictly for the first class passengers... If the [first class] seats get filled, great; if not, it's there to show that Baltia Air Lines has that kind of service." The airline is hiring "stewards" from "fine restaurants, not flight attendants who work for other airlines that have bad habits. The experience will be incredible... like the grand old ocean liners."
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Что они там курят?
 
Эх, незадача - мануалы, понимаешь, не готовы... А так бы как уже летали!:) Да, и кстати, у них уже четырехклассная компновка намечается - все на тот же еженедельный рейс в Питер.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/09/18/332498/baltia-pushes-back-launch-until-2010.html


DATE:18/09/09
SOURCE:Air Transport Intelligence news
Baltia pushes back launch until 2010
By Brendan Sobie

US start-up carrier Baltia Air Lines has pushed back its launch to at least February 2010 due to delays in submitting its application for an FAA operating permit.

Baltia executive vice president Russell Thal told the Cargo Facts 2009 aircraft symposium in Seattle the carrier had originally planned to begin services late this summer with Boeing 747-200 flights between New York JFK and St Petersburg in Russia. But he says it has taken longer to prepare the manuals required by the FAA and Baltia now plans to submit its manuals next month.

The carrier has been told by the FAA it will then take four to five months for the manuals to be reviewed. Therefore the earliest Baltia will be able to launch is February.

"In the old days we used to take someone else's manual and paste our names in it," Thal told the Cargo Facts conference. "Those days are gone and now everything is scrutinized."

He says Baltia plans to initially operate one weekly frequency on the JFK-St Petersburg route with additional frequencies to be added later. Thal says Baltia also envisions launching services from New York to Moscow, Riga, Minsk and other ex-Soviet cities as the carrier takes additional 747-200s, which will be configured with 270 seats spread across four classes. It plans to add one aircraft every three to five months.

Thal says the upper deck of Baltia's 747-200s will be equipped with a lounge and dining room for premium passengers. He says the carrier is talking to Regent Aerospace about supplying the interior for its first aircraft.

As part of Baltia's plan to go back to "the days of a luxury liner", Thal says the carrier will have a chef and 20 stewards on each flight.
 
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