Volodymyr Zelenskyy begins to use Ukraine Air Enterprise’s presidential aircraft abroad

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale military aggression of the russian federation has used the Airbus A319 CJ aircraft (registration number UR-ABA) of the Ukraine Air Enterprise, which is considered the official "presidential" aircraft. On this plane, the Ukrainian President flew to New York to participate in the events of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.

Since the beginning of the full-scale military aggression, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made all foreign visits on aircraft of the Allied air forces - the United States, the United Kingdom and France.

Also, often the President of Ukraine used the aircraft of the Republic of Poland, from the territory of which, in fact, flights were carried out.

As avianews.com reports, according to the flightaware.com online radar, on August 31, the Ukrainian Airbus A319 CJ flew from Tallinn to Krakow, on September 18 - from Krakow to Rzeszow Airport on the border with Ukraine, from where it proceeded to New York the same day with an intermediate refueling landing in Irish Shannon. After disembarking passengers in New York, the plane flew to the Andrews military air base near Washington, on which U.S. state airports are based.

Also, the publication claims that at the time of the invasion of Ukraine by the russians, the presidential aircraft was outside Ukraine (in Europe). Although, there is no official information on this matter. The same concerns other aircraft that belong to the Ukraine Air Enterprise.

This aircraft is a VIP version of the aircraft from the most popular family of aircraft A320 manufactured by Airbus. The designated Airbus A319 CJ UR-ABA was released in 2007. It was ordered to transport top officials of Ukraine under President Viktor Yushchenko, but at the disposal of the Ukraine Air Enterprise the board came under President Viktor Yanukovych. A few years after the aircraft was released, a special cabin was installed in it.

Viktor Yanukovych and Petro Poroshenko flew this plane both abroad and during working trips in Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy also went on his first foreign visit - June 4, 2019 to Brussels - on this particular plane.

After the decommissioning of a number of medium-haul aircraft Tu134-А3 and long-haul Il62-М2, Airbus A319 CJ remained the largest aircraft in terms of passenger capacity and flight range on the balance of the Ukraine Air Enterprise. In addition to it, at the beginning of the invasion of the russian federation, there were An148-100, An74TK-300 and Мі-8 heliocopters in the air fleet of the enterprise.

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