Osijek Airport has welcomed a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 aircraft last week. It was a charter flight operated by a bulgarian air carrier ALK Airlines (VBB). The plane carried members of the football club CSKA Sofia, who arrived for a football match in the second round qualifiers to UEFA league. This aircraft arrived from Sofia on Wednesday, August 31st, with the flight no. VBB1923. The return flight from Osijek to Sofia departed on Friday, August 2nd, with the flight no. VBB1948.
This aircraft, with registration LZ-ADV, was produced 29 year ago for Italian national air carrier Alitalia (AZ/AZA). It was withdrawn from regular traffic in Italy in October 2012. Four years later it was purchased by current Bulgarian operator.
Bulgarian air carrier ALK Airlines, often reffered to as Air Lubo, started operations in 2016. with two planes of the same type. One year later, they took over another McDonnell Douglas MD-83, which was part of their fleet only for the summer 2017 season. After that it was sold in Ukraine. In addition to two MD-82 Aircraft, ALK Airlines also operates two Boeing 737-300s, which were purchased from the American air carrier Southwest Airlines (WN/SWA).
ALK Airlines operates charter flights from Bulgaria to tourist destinations in the Mediterranean and further. They also wet-lease their aircraft and crews to other air carriers for short term contracts.
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Photo © Josip Andračić (OSI/08.2019)
