Hans Airways (GKS, Birmingham, GB) has taken delivery of its first aircraft, an A330-200, ahead of formal technical handover and technical acceptance signing with the lessor, it revealed in a statement.
ch-aviation analysis of AirNav Radarbox data shows EC-KTG (msn 950) was ferried from Palma de Mallorca to Birmingham, GB on August 2. Owned and managed by Carlyle Aviation Partners, the 14-year-old twinjet was previously operated by a single carrier, Air Europa (UX, Palma de Mallorca), from September 2008, according to the ch-aviation fleets module. It will be re-registered in the UK as G-KJAS.
Hans Airways signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) for its first aircraft in January and then firmed this with a committed contract in March. It had originally aimed at a commercial launch in early 2022.
Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) proving flights for the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority will take place in the coming weeks, it said. Once it has its AOC, and similar accreditation from India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Hans Airways plans an initial 4x weekly service from Birmingham to Amritsar in northern India. As the start-up’s chief executive Satnam Singh Saini told ch-aviation in December, it has identified “high demand” for routes between secondary cities in the UK and India and intends to have a close working relationship with travel agencies and travel management companies.
