Kyrgyz Logistics - Fleet Poster

Originally posted 31/3/2021, migrated here 28/5/2021

КЛА was founded in 1992 by a wealthy Kyrgyz businessman, Aziz Bakimov, who wanted to have a faster and more reliable method of transporting his valuable metals mined in Kyrgyzstan worldwide than the slow Aeroflot service via Moscow. With his great influence in the region, he was able to acquire a defunct Soviet air base nestled in the mountains in the south of the country near Sary-Tash and dubiously acquired a single Antonov An-2 to fly cargo services to Bishkek.

In the next decade, he was able to grow his fleet with a large number of Soviet-era aircraft. Many of these aircraft were aircraft in storage simply broken into and flown out of abandoned and derelict airports from around the region. Very little is known about the history most of the fleet. Despite the age of the fleet, the operation also was able to hire some of the best pilots in the region, many of them being ex-Air Force.

However, the company also gained a reputation for transporting other kinds of cargo - mainly illegal drugs and cargo that mainline carriers would refuse to carry. It became the Emirates of the illegal cargo industry; transporting cargo from remote, unprepared airstrips in Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia to their final destinations for a lucrative fee.

In 2005, the company was banned from flying into the European Union after four crew were arrested in Žilina, Czech Republic, when the An-24B was searched and more than nine hundred kilograms of cocaine in addition to multiple passengers without documentation hoping to make their way into Western Europe from Central and East Asia. Shortly after, Arch Aviation was founded in Bishkek Manas International Airport, with the aim of being a more "reputable" arm of Kyrgyz Logistics' operations. The new company was able to acquire Western-built aircraft and currently operates a fleet of three 737s, two -300s and one -700, both converted to freighter airframes. Arch's aircraft, wearing the base livery of Krygyz Logistics, can usually be seen in airports scattered around Eastern Europe.

AIRCRAFT INFORMATION (top to bottom)

Antonov An-24B - EX-78435
January 1976 Delivered to Afghan Air Force
August 1980 damaged during take-off in Khost
May 1988 stored in Kandahar
June 1989 - October 1992 - Unknown
February 1993 - Painted into Kyrgyz Logistics colors
August 1999 - Impounded in Sari, Iran
September 2000 - January 2005 - Unknown
February 2005 - Damaged during hard landing in inclement conditions in Surgut, Russia
August 2009 - January 2012 - Unknown
October 2014 - Disappeared over Red Sea
July 2018 - Found in South Sudan with all Kyrgyz Logistics logos removed
Current coordinates 10°02'42.5"N 32°57'23.7"E


Antonov An-22 - EX-34611
December 1962 delivered to Soviet Air Force
May 1978 stored in Alma-Ata (Almaty), USSR
November 1978 sold to Egyptair
October 1987 stored in Alexandria
June 1994 disappeared
June 1994 - January 1995 - unknown
February 1995 painted into Kyrgyz Logistics colors
June 1998 damaged in hard landing in Erbil, Iraq
November 1998 damaged in tailstrike in Kashgar, China
January 2016 stored in Osh, Kyrgyzstan
May 2018 stored in Abakan, Russia
October 2020 stored in Al Ain, UAE
January 2021 damaged during takeoff (shot by rebels after takeoff in Espungabera, Mozambique)

Ilyushin Il-18 - EX-31840
June 1969 delivered to Soviet Air Force
August 1978 stored in Volgograd, USSR
May 1984 sold to LOT Polish Airlines
January 1991 stored in Szczecin, Poland
May 1994 - August 1994 - Unknown
August 1994 painted into Kyrygz Logistics colors
May 1996 bird-strike during take-off from Osh, Kyrgyzstan
February 2011 damaged during hard landing in Pyongyang, DPRK
January 2014 stored in Aleppo, Syria

November 2016 shot down after takeoff from Suldaan Xaaji Maxamed Nur Airport, Somalia
Final coordinates 2°26'34.2"N 42°57'54.7"E


Boeing 737-300CF - EX-18381
September 1990 delivered to Ansett Australia
May 2002 stored in Alice Springs
January 2008 sold to Arch Aviation
May 2013 stored in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
November 2019 damaged during runway excursion in Bacău, Romania
January 2021 returned to service