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https://knaviation.net/baltia-air-lines-usglobal-airways/ 6park.comBaltia Air Lines & USGlobal Airways: 30 Years of History, 0 Miles of Revenue Flights 6park.comAir Travel / October 24, 2019 / By Keishi Nukina 6park.comIf you’re an aviation enthusiast, chances are you’ve heard about Baltia Air Lines. The airline, later rebranded to USGlobal Airways, has been “in business” for 30 years and even owns an aircraft. 6park.comYet, it has never flown a single commercial flight or generated any revenue. Instead, it has relied on investors’ capital to keep “the dream” – or, arguably, “scam” – alive. 6park.comContinue reading to learn more about the history of this bizarre company. 6park.comBaltia Air Lines: The Airline That Never Flew 6park.comThe first, and so far last, aircraft to wear Baltia Air Lines’ livery. 6park.comThe Birth of Baltia Air Lines 6park.comBaltia Air Lines was established in August 1989 by Igor Dmitrowsky from Latvia who had the idea of launching an airline that would connect New York City with the Soviet Union. While he was an amateur pilot, he had no experience in the airline business. 6park.comIn 1991, the airline got approvals from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT) to operate flights from New York to Leningrad (today’s St. Petersburg) and Riga. It also planned to operate short-haul flights from Riga to Kiev, Minsk, and Tbilisi. 6park.comThese flights, though, never came to fruition – due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union among other reasons – and the airline lost the rights to operate them. 6park.comBoeing 747-200s Join Baltia Air Lines’ Fleet 6park.comAbout five years later, Baltia Air Lines was “back in business” as it had reapplied for – and received permission to fly between New York and St. Petersburg. In 1998, it put a $100,000 downpayment for a former Cathay Pacific 747-200 with which it planned to start operations. 6park.comIt run out of capital, though, and so, its plans to start flying were axed again. The company has also lost the rights previously granted by the DoT. 6park.comStill not giving up, the airline managed to secure new capital injection in 2007. With that, it reapplied for the permission to connect New York and St. Petersburg, and was (re)granted the permission in 2008. 6park.comBaltia Air Lines Website 6park.com“The New Way to Europe.” (2008 version of the airline’s website retrieved using the Wayback Machine.) 6park.comIn July 2009, to the surprise of many, Baltia Air Lines secured its first aircraft – a Boeing 747-200 registered N705BL. The airframe was originally delivered to TAP Air Portugal in 1975 before being sold to Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) less than a year later. It flew with PIA until 2005. 6park.comThe airline expanded its fleet about two years later, in 2011, when it purchased another 747-200. This time, it was registered N706BL, and it was an ex-Northwest Airlines and Kalitta Air airframe. 6park.comUnlike the first airframe, the second 747 was painted into Baltia Air Lines’ livery. 6park.comIn spite of that, just like the first airframe, the second airframe never carried any paying passengers. N705BL was scrapped in 2012 at Subang Airport in Malaysia while N706BL appears to be stored at Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport in Michigan to this day. 6park.comRebranding to USGlobal Airways 6park.comAfter the founder’s death in 2016, the company’s board elected Anthony Koulouris as the new president. 6park.comBesides that, the company even added Conrad Kalitta, a respected businessman and the CEO of Kalitta Air to its board of directors on October 31, 2016; that didn’t last long, though, as he resigned just a couple of months later, on January 31, 2017. 6park.comThat said, before his resignation, Baltia Air Lines signed a letter of intent to lease one of Kalitta Air’s 767-300ERs due to – among other reasons – the Federal Aviation Administration asking the airline to acquire more modern aircraft that the 747-200. 6park.comNeedles to say, the lease never ended up happening. 6park.comLater that year, in May 2017, the company announced that it would be rebranding the airline into USGlobal Airways and that it would move its operations (not like there was much to move…) to Stewart International Airport in New York. 6park.comThe Baltia Air Lines website was active until that time after which it started redirecting to the USGlobal Airways website. 6park.comUSGlobal Airways 6park.comThe USGlobal Airways livery. 6park.comAbout a month later, the company announced that it intended to acquire Songbird Airways, a Miami-based charter airline. It even placed a one million dollar deposit into an escrow account. 6park.comThat deal, however, fell through. USGlobal Airways backed out of it saying that entering the agreement to purchase the airline was not the best decision for the company. 6park.comThe Current State of Baltia Air Lines & USGlobal Airways 6park.comIn spite of the rebranding, the legal entity’s name never changed from Baltia Air Lines Inc. 6park.comCurrently, neither the Baltia Air Lines website (baltia.com) nor its successor, the USGlobal Airways website (usglobal.com) are working. While the domains are registered, there is no content on the websites. 6park.comThat said, USGlobal Airways’ Facebook page still exists. It was created on May 20, 2017, around the same time the announcement was made, and its as active as the airline itself. In other words, the first – and the last – post on the page was published on May 26, 2017. 6park.comWhile the Facebook post above is one of the last times – if not the last time – the public has heard from the airline to date, it’s not the latest news about the airline. 6park.comThe company’s stock had been trading over-the-counter for years. However, on March 8, 2019, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoked the Baltia Air Lines stock from the OTC Markets to protect investors. 6park.comAs such, while the company still seems to exist (i.e. continues to be incorporated), it remains as dormant as ever. 6park.comSummary 6park.comAs you can see above, Baltia Air Lines has the tendency to come up with “news” every now and then, out of the blue. However, to this day, after more than 30 years “in business,” it wasn’t able to operate a single revenue flight. 6park.comNot only that, but fairly recently, its (penny) stock was banned from being traded. With all of the company’s cash to date having been generated from investments rather than revenues from paying customers, there is little incentive now for the company to come up with “good news.” 6park.comAs such, it remains to be seen whether we will ever hear from Baltia Air Lines – or USGlobal Airways – again.
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