The Investigative Committee opened a case against the leadership of the largest charter airline in Russia – RBC

Law enforcement agencies considered that the management of Azur Air, together with several other unidentified persons, issued coupons for Turkey to the former head of the flight operations department of the Federal Air Transport Agency Maxim Kostylev (he stopped working in the apartment in the spring of 2022), while its cost allegedly “was underestimated by 4.7 million rubles “in comparison with market prices,” said one of the interlocutors of the publication.

A source familiar with the case notes that the tours were issued through Anex Tour, which is associated with Azur Air. The package included a business class flight in July 2021 and accommodation at the Luxury Hotel Bodrum, a Turkish premium hotel owned by Azur Air Supervisory Board Chairman Serhat Kochkar.

The investigation believes that this could have influenced the results of the inspection of Azur Air’s flight work by the Federal Air Transport Agency; the department disclosed a limited number of violations. The airline received a certificate from the Federal Air Transport Agency for its own staff training center in June 2021 and has also agreed to obtain permits for additional cargo and passenger flights.

At the beginning of October 2021, Azur Air changed its leadership: Yevgeny Korolev was appointed as the new CEO of the airline in place of Yuri Stogniy, who since March of the same year served as the director of the airline’s technical department.

Now Anex Tourism is owned by Asek Eshpulatov, Azur Air is owned by Anna and Lyudmila Fukalova. The previous co-owners of the airline were Rustem and Natalia Kochkar (they worked at Anex Tour). Serhat Kochkar was a co-owner of Anex Tour.

Azur Air’s press service did not comment on the situation. A representative of Anex Tour said that the publication request should be directed to the airline.