Continental Airways

Continental Airways Tu-154M

The airline was founded in 1995 as an exclusive cargo airline, operating 3 Tupolev Tu-154s. Its initial base was the Moscow-Vnukovo International Airport. In 2000 it acquired 3 Ilyushin Il-76TDs to increase its routes and expand its destinations. In 2004, they acquired 4 more Tupolev Tu-154s to start their passenger service, which would make its first flight in 2005, and 4 additional Il-76TDs to strengthen their cargo services. It was a relatively important airline in transport to the Krasnoyarsk Region, as it was one of the three airlines that flew to those territories, along with Aeroflot and Ural Airlines.

Its passenger service operated only with domestic destinations, in contrast to this, its cargo service destinations had flights to Libya, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belarus, Iran, China, England and France. In 2010, Continental Airways transported 6,100 tons of merchandise, 2.5% more than in 2009.

After having financial problems for two years, selling several of his Il-76s and suspending most of their destinations, on July 29, 2011 the Russian Air Safety Agency revoked his permission to fly, and the next day , the airline declared bankruptcy, thus ceasing all its operations.

Continental Airways served the following scheduled destinations: Abakan, Anapa, Barnaul, Bratsk, Blagoveshchensk, Cheliabinsk, Gelendzhik, Irkutsk, Kazan, Kemerovo, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Murmansk, Nizhni Novgorod, Norilsk, Novokuznetsk, Petropavl, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Sochi, Ufa, Vladivostok, Yakutsk, Yekaterinburg, and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

Continental Airways operated the following aircraft: