SKOL Airlines receives two Mi-8MTV-1 helicopters

The operator now has a total of 13 Mi-8/17/171 family aircraft (SKOL Airlines)

Russian Surgut-based carrier SKOL Airlines has taken delivery of two new Mil Mi-8MTV-1 medium helicopters. This completes the contract signed in December 2016, OEM Russian Helicopters reports.

The helicopters will be based in Surgut, and are expected to serve both passenger and cargo flights.

SKOL already has experience of Mi-8MTV-1 operations. It reportedly had one such helicopter back in 2013, although the carrier itself and the Federal Air Transport Agency’s (FATA) register indicate that the newly received aircraft are the only two of the type in the airline’s current fleet.

This has been SKOL’s first rotary-wing delivery March 2013. Back then the carrier received two Mi-171s, which were intended to be flown in UN missions.

As follows from FATA’s database, prior to the fresh delivery the operator’s fleet included 11 helicopters of the Mil Mi-8/17/171 family (two Mi-171s, four Mi-8AMTs, and five Mi-8Ts), five Mi-26T rotorcraft, and two light Airbus Helicopters AS350 B3s. The carrier also operates Cessna 208B, DHC-6 Series 400 Twin Otter, and Yakovlev Yak-40 fixed-wing aircraft.

SKOL’s customers include Russian oil and gas companies (Surgutneftegaz, Gazprom, Transneft, and Rosneft), the administration of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region, and the Surgut district administration.