Azerbaijan Airlines to Launch Direct Flights to the US

Azerbaijan Airlines the flag carrier of Azerbaijan announced recently that it will soon launch new nonstop service to the United States. The airline will start offering this service by the end of this summer or by early fall.

Azerbaijan received Category 1 safety and security rating in March this year from the US Federal Aviation Administration. Category 1 status means that now the Azerbaijan carriers will not only be able to codeshare with US carriers but will be able to fly independently to the country. Now AZAL will be able to formulate its dream to fly nonstop to New York from Baku.

Jahangir Asgarov, President AZAL said Azerbaijan has finally got the much coveted Category 1 status by
FAA, implying that State Civil Aviation Administration of Azerbaijan abides by with ICAO standards and carriers like us can now fly to the USA. The country got Category 1 status on the basis of the FAA review done in October 2013. We are very happy to announce that we will soon offer direct flights to New York from Baku, which also happens be our head office.

AZAL will operate Airbus A340-500s on Baku-New York route thrice a week. It will be a transit flight via Europe; however the details of the transit country have not been reveled yet.

As a final step before starting the direct flights, safety inspections will be conducted once more. Richard Morningstar, the U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan said we do not foresee any problems and are confidant to launch this route latest by the end of summer of beginning fall. Azerbaijan has come along a long way in the negotiations to begin offering nonstop flights on this route.

Azerbaijan Airlines is the biggest airline of the country proving flights to destinations in Asia, Middle East, the CIS and Europe. At present its fleet consists of Boeing 767-300, Boeing 757-200, Airbus ?320, Airbus ?319, ATR 72 and ATR 42.