Utari Air

Utari Air is a commercial airline in British Columbia offering scheduled domestic, continental, and international services. It is based in Utari Mosir and is the primary transportation service linking the four inhabited islands of Utari Mosir with each other.

Utari Air serves sixteen destinations (five domestic, one continental, ten international) in four countries.

History
Utari Air was established in 1977 to provide local service within Utari Mosir with three DHBC-3B Sandpiper aircraft acquired second-hand from Wien Air Alaska. These aircraft, supplemented by a fourth from Air BC in 1980, formed the backbone of local service between Furukamap, Shana, Shikotan, and Urup until the late 1990s. In 1979, four larger NAMC YS-11 turboprop airliners, seating 64 passengers, were bought from All Nippon Airways, using them to inaugurate flights between Utari Mosir and Japan - initially on the Iturup–Sendai and Iturup–Tokyo routes. Further destinations in Japan were added over the next decade.

In 1989, Utari Air leased a single Yakovlev Yak-40 trijet from Aeroflot to inaugurate its first service to the then-Soviet Union, a weekly return between Iturup and Vladivostok. A second weekly flight with the Yak-40 to the USSR was added in 1991 between Furukamap and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky; also that year, an island-hopper service between Iturup and Severo-Kurilsk was added, usually operated with a Sandpiper. In 1994, three Yakovlev Yak-42D trijets - twice the size of the diminutive Yak-40 - were acquired new from Russia. These replaced the Yak-40s, and allowed a new service to Magadan, Russia, to be added.

Prior to 1995, the only connection between Utari Mosir and mainland BC was the weekly Air BC flight between Iturup and Vancouver. With their 2200 nmi range, the new Yaks permitted the inauguration of a twice-weekly Iturup–Vancouver service, with a technical stop at Unalaska, Alaska, United States, that year; Unalaska as a destination was added the following year. Due to increasing demand for the Vancouver and Tokyo services, Utari Air bought two 180-seat Skookum Tridents from Inter-Dominion Air Lines in 2007. To further boost ridership, special "Explorer" fares between Vancouver and Tokyo via Iturup were offered from Summer 2011, with a two-day stay in Iturup on one of the legs included in the price; these proved quite popular.

Since then, several more destinations in northern Japan have been added, but there are no plans to expand the route network at this time; instead, attention is on the complete modernisation of the fleet. By 2024, all passenger aircraft - the Twin Otters, the Tridents, the YS-11s and the Yak-42s will have been replaced by new aircraft: the Sukhoi Su-80 to replace the Twin Otters, the Mitsubishi SpaceJet M90 to replace the YS-11s, and the Irkut MC-21-300 to replace the Tridents and Yak-40s. Utari Air became the foreign launch customer of the MC-21, receiving the first one in August 2021; the first Su-80 was received a month later, whilst deliveries of five SpaceJet M90s are to begin in 2022.

Incidents

 * 11 November 1983: Blackburn B-101 Beverley C.1 VB-UTD (c/n 1048/1958), operating a charter cargo flight from Seoul, South Korea, to Iturup, crashed shortly after takeoff. As the aircraft neared the east coast of Korea, power to the number three engine was lost; the aircraft, having been overloaded, was unable to maintain altitude. The crew announced its intention to divert to the nearest airport, Yangyang International Airport, when it was overhead Wontong-ni, but crashed in the mountains about five miles from Mount Seoraksan. The three crew and three passengers aboard were all killed.


 * 15 August 1991: DHBC-3B Sandpiper VB-SAB (c/n C370/1955), operating as Flight UW 19 from Iturup to Urup, crashed shortly after takeoff. Iturup ATC instructed the flight crew to make a left turn after takeoff from Iturup International Airport. Instead, a right turn was made; the aircraft flew towards mountaineous terrain and struck Mount Hokuyuk thirty feet below the summit. Both crew and the nine passengers aboard were killed.


 * 9 February 2021: Yakovlev Yak-42D VB-UYB (c/n 4520421402018/1994), operating as Flight UW 202 from Sendai, Japan, to Furukamap, was damaged when the nosegear collapsed whilst landing in a snowstorm. There were no injuries amongst the four crew and forty-two passengers aboard, and the aircraft was repaired and returned to service.

Current

 * DHBC-5F Swan - 2 (1990 to date), cargo, acquired second-hand
 * DHBC-6 Twin Otter - 4 (1981 to date), acquired second-hand; to be retired by 2023
 * DHBC-7 Skookum Trident - 2 (2007 to date), acquired second-hand; to be retired by 2025
 * Irkut MC-21-300 1 (2021 to date), +4 on order, to be delivered by 2025
 * Mitsubishi SpaceJet M90 - 0 +5 on order, to be delivered 2022–2024
 * NAMC YS-11 - 4 (1979 to date), acquired second-hand; to be retired by 2024
 * Sukhoi Su-80 - 1 (2021 to date), +4 on order, to be delivered by 2024
 * Yakovlev Yak-42D - 3 (1994 to date), delivered new; to be retired by 2025

Historic

 * Antonov An-22 - 1 (1994-1996), leased
 * Blackburn Beverley - 2 (1977–1984), acquired second-hand
 * DHBC-3B Sandpiper - 4 (1977–2001), acquired second-hand
 * Transall C-160 - 1 (1982–2010), acquired second-hand
 * Yakovlev Yak-40 - 1 (1989–1994), leased

BC-made aircraft
''Note: a green background indicates an aircraft in service, a yellow background indicates a retired aircraft, and a pink background indicates an aircraft lost in an accident.

Routes


Entries with a green background indicates a destination in British Columbia.