Aero Mongolia
Aero Mongolia (, ) is one of the three national airlines of Mongolia. Its head office is on the third floor of Buyant-Ukhaa International Airport in Ulaanbaatar. It operates domestic flights to eleven destinations, and also operates international scheduled services to Irkutsk, Russia, and to Hohhot, China. Its main base is Chinggis Khaan International Airport. History. The airline was established in 2001 and performed its first flight domestically on May 25, 2003. Today, it has over 140 employees (as of December 2014) and operates flights for two destinations internationally, and twelve destinations domestically via its own three Fokker 50  aircraft and two Fokker 100 aircraft. It received its first Fokker 50 in May 2003 and its first Fokker 100 in January 2006. By merging with Monnis Group in June 2007, Aero Mongolia took numerous actions to strengthen its management, to stabilize financial capability and to ensure flight safety. Timeline. Aero Mongolia LLC was founded in June, 2001. The company first took the airline permission in October, 2002. It received two Fokker 50 aircraft in May 2003. Its first flight domestically was on May 25, 2003. Its first international flight (destination 'Ulaanbaatar - Hohhot') was in December 2003. It was awarded  the 'Satisfying Service' honor from Mongolian Western Region Research Centre in 2004. It launched 'Ulaanbaatar - Irkutsk' flights in April 2004. It received its first Fokker 100 aircraft in January 2006. It was the first company to perform domestic flights with jet-engine aircraft in Mongolia in January 2006. It launched 'Ulaanbaatar - Cheongju' and 'Ulaanbaatar - Tianjin' flights in February 2006. It received a second Fokker 100 aircraft in July 2006. Aero Mongolia was occupying and performing 90% of the all Mongolian domestic flights by the time of December 2006. 'Monnis Group' invested and took responsibility for the company management in June  2007. On October 31, 2007, 'Mongolian Civil Aviation Authority' temporarily suspended Aero Mongolian flights. In the first quarter of 2008, Aero Mongolia retrieved its license to fly in domestic routes. It enrolled as a member organization of the Mongolian Airlines Association in April 2008. It won the 'Quality White Golden Star' award from the World Quality Committee in September 2008. From the beginning of 2010, Aero Mongolia started taking actions to strengthen its operation and management. Through 2010, Aero Mongolia signed some advantageous charter flight contracts with the leading companies in Mongolia's mining sector. It received its third Fokker  50 aircraft in August 2010 and its fourth in September 2012. Destinations. As of August 2019, Aero Mongolia operated the following services (including domestic charter): Fleet. Current fleet. The Aero Mongolia fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of November 2021): Former fleet. The airline fleet previously included the following aircraft: Frequent flyer program. SKYMILES is the frequent-flyer program of Aero Mongolia. "SKYMILES" also refers to the bonus card which Aero Mongolia's frequent flyers are given. The program enables passengers to collect 10 tugriks (MNT) from each km they fly. Savings will be automatically calculated (based on flight  distance) and collected to passenger’s bonus card. Passengers can make use of their savings whenever they want. Incidents and accidents. On 31 October 2007, Mongolian aviation authorities suspended Aero Mongolia flights temporarily after the airline failed safety checks. In the first quarter of 2008, Aero Mongolia received the license to fly on domestic routes. The airline's operations were temporarily suspended from January to May, 2009 due to the Mongolian Civil Aviation's doubt of flight safety. On 29 March 2012, a flight from Oyu Tolgoi mine to Ulaanbaatar had an accident. The preliminary cause was a sudden gust  of wind, which pushed the plane off the runway during takeoff. Although no one was seriously injured, the airplane suffered engine damage along with a broken propeller due to hitting the runway lights. The case is still under investigation. On 30 March 2012, Aero Mongolia Fokker 50 aircraft Reg. JU-8257, a during takeoff roll in Oyutolgoi Airport, skidded off the runway and the right engine propeller was separated due to colliding with the side runway lights. The aircraft was written off due to severe damage. There were no fatalities and no injuries.