Solinair (ZS, Ljubljana) has applied to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for a Foreign Air Carrier Permit as it seeks to expand its cargo charter operations to the United States.
The Slovenian cargo specialist said it would initially serve the US with aircraft wet-leased from "a duly authorized and properly supervised US or foreign air carrier from a Category 1 FAA IASA country". It may switch to in-house operations in the future once Slovenia is audited by the FAA and certified as a Category 1 country. Currently, the country does not have an IASA category as it has never undergone a full FAA audit.
Solinair did not disclose any further details concerning its network plans or the scope of its proposed US operations. The airline operates two in-house A300-600R(F)s and wet-leases a third from its Turkish sister MNG Airlines (MB, Istanbul Airport), the ch-aviation fleets module shows. One of the in-house A300s and the wet-leased unit operate short-haul European charters out of Leipzig/Halle on behalf of DHL Express, while the other A300 operated by Solinair is undergoing maintenance at Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen.
The airline did not respond to ch-aviation's request for comment.
