Air Kosova

IATA code

ICAO code

Callsign

History

unknown

unknown

unknown

2000 - 2000

Air Kosova was a short-lived airline, which started in July 2000. Presumably it was a virtual airline founded by a travel agency, but information on Air Kosova is very scarce. The last pictures date from September 2000, meaning that the airline existed for approximately 3 months only. To the best of our knowledge, the airline operated just two routes: from Geneva to Pristina, the capital city of Kosovo, and from Zurich to Pristina. Geneva was served four times per week and Zurich three times. Passengers were mainly refugees who returned home after the Kosovo war ended in 1999.

Air Kosova leased two Fokker 50s from the Danish charter operator Newair and applied own titles and logos. Quite surprisingly in view of the short existence of Air Kosova, three main liveries are documented, with several small variations, resulting in six distinct schemes (see tables below). The Albanian flag in the earlier liveries can be explained by the fact that the majority of inhabitants of Kosovo are of Albanian ancestry and many of them had fled the country when the war with Serbia broke out.

From September to November 2008 another aircraft carrying Air Kosova titles could be seen in the European skies, an MD-82 operated by Aurora Airlines. Sightings were mainly from Germany and Austria. It is unclear whether this was the same commercial entity as the 2000 airline using Fokker aircraft.

The known details of the two F50 that have operated for Air Kosova are in the table below.

 

Air Kosova Fokker fleet

Registration c/n Date in Date out Liveries known (see below)
OY-EBB 20118 03-07-2000 28-09-2000 KOS-1, KOS-2, KOS-4 and KOS-5
OY-EBD 20119 03-07-2000 28-09-2000 KOS-3 and KOS-6
Livery Front, upper Front, lower Tail
KOS-1 -- Airkosova titles, ahead of cabin windows Logo-1
KOS-2 Rectangular Albanian flag Airkosova titles, ahead of cabin windows Logo-1
KOS-3 Rectangular Albanian flag Airkosova titles, under cabin windows Logo-2
KOS-4 Waving Albanian flag Airkosova titles, ahead of cabin windows Logo-2
KOS-5 Logo-2 Airkosova titles, ahead of cabin windows --
KOS-6 Logo-2 -- --
Logo-1: red oval, no text; logo-2: red oval with airline name.

Air Kosova pictures

Air Kosova F50 OY-EBB (20118) in livery 1. (author’s collection; Zurich, July 2000)

 

Air Kosova F50 OY-EBB (20118) in livery 2. (propfreak; Zurich, July 2000)

 

Air Kosova F50 OY-EBD (20119) in livery 3. (author’s collection; Zurich, July 2000)

 

Air Kosova F50 OY-EBB (20118) in livery 4. (author’s collection; Zurich, August 2000)

 

Air Kosova F50 OY-EBB (20118) in livery 5. (author’s collection; September 2000)

 

Air Kosova F50 OY-EBD (20119) in livery 6. (author’s collection; Zurich, September 2000)

 

Credits

  • B. Eastwood and J. Roche. Turbo Prop Airliner Production List. The Aviation Hobby Shop, July 2007.
  • Photos: unless stated otherwise, unknown photographers (scans from the author's slide collection)