Bout: where did he go?

Click Airways connected to Victor Bout ?

July 2008- While Victor remains in arrest in Bangkok,Thailand we may consider if his business is operating as normal. A company I would like to have a closer look at is Click Airways, allegedly a company with ties to the infamous arms dealer.

06 mar 08, 1121GMT - The Associated Press
RUSSIAN ARMS DEALER LINKED TO EMBARGO BREAKING: ARRESTED IN THAILAND

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ A Russian arms dealer accused of breaking U.N. arms embargoes by supplying weapons to African war zones was arrested Thursday in Bangkok, Thai police said.
Police Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan, head of the Crime Suppression Bureau, said Viktor Bout was arrested in the heart of the capital Bangkok on a warrant issued by a Thai court. The warrant came out of an earlier one issued by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman «congratulated» the Thai police for the arrest but could not provide details about the role the Americans played in it. Details of the charges against Bout were also not immediately available.
Victor Bout upon his arrest - AP Photo

Bout allegedly has been trafficking weapons to Central and West Africa since the early 1990s. U.N. reports say he set up a network of more than 50 aircraft around the world and trade experts have said illicit diamond trade was likely one source of funds for his smuggled arms shipments.
Although Bout has been investigated by police in several countries, he has never been prosecuted for arms dealing. A 2005 report by Amnesty International, a Britain-based human rights watchdog, alleged that Bout was «the most prominent foreign businessman» involved in trafficking arms to U.N.-embargoed destinations from Bulgaria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and other countries.
The report also implicated Bout in transferring «very large quantities of arms» from Ukraine that were delivered to Uganda via Tanzania aboard a Greek-registered cargo ship.
In 2003, the U.N. imposed an arms embargo on the provinces of North and South Kivu and the Ituri regions of eastern Congo, and also on groups that were not a part of the 2003 peace agreement for the region.

Photo courtesy NY Times.com / Associated Press

On http://www.urnetpool.com/Airline/United-Arab-Emirates_flight.php
I came across a list of airlines of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.):

Abu Dhabi Aviation : Abu Dhabi Aviation is an airline based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It serves oil-fields and economic facilities in the United Arab Emirates and other Arab states. Its main base is Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Aerovista Airlines : Aerovista Airlines is an airline based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It was established and started operations in 1999 and operates passenger and cargo services in the Persian Gulf area. Its main base is Sharjah International Airport.

Air Arabia : Air Arabia is a low-cost airline based in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. It operates scheduled services to 32 destinations in the Middle East, North Africa, the Indian Subcontinent and Central Asia. Its main base is Sharjah International Airport. Air Arabia is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization.

Air Cess : Air Cess is a cargo airline based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It operates charter cargo services.
Somes articles linked this company with the arms seller Viktor Bout.

Al Rais Cargo : Al Rais Cargo is a cargo airline based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was established in 1983 and its main base is Dubai International Airport.

Arabjet : Arabjet is a start-up airline based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was established on 1 August 2004 and is a proposed regional all business class, premium service scheduled airline. It is wholly owned by ArabJet FZCO and its main base is Dubai International Airport.

Aria Air : Aria Air is an airline based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It operates international and domestic passenger services. Its main base is Dubai International Airport.

AVE.com : AVE.com is an airline based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It operates charter and passenger aircraft leasing. Its main base is Sharjah International Airport.

British Gulf International Airlines : British Gulf International Co. LTD is a cargo airline based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates and operating from Sharjah and Dubai. Its main base is Sharjah International Airport, with a hub at Dubai International Airport.

Cargo Plus Aviation : Cargo Plus Aviation is a cargo airline based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It operates ad hoc flights to Asia, Africa and eastern Europe.

Click Airways : Click Airways is an airline based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It was established in 2004 and operates international charter services. Its main base is Sharjah International Airport.

Daallo Airlines : Daallo Airlines is an airline, headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It operates scheduled services in East Africa and the Middle East with extensions to France and the United Kingdom. Its main base is Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport.

Dolphin Air : Dolphin Air is a charter airline based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It operates charter services within the Middle East. Its main base is Dubai International Airport.

Emirates : Emirates Airline (shortened form: Emirates) is an airline based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is the Middle East's largest airline and it operates scheduled passenger services, with nearly 2350 flights each week, serving 92 cities in 59 countries in Europe, North America, Middle East, Africa, India, Asia-Pacific and the competitive "kangaroo route" between Europe and Oceania. Cargo activities are undertaken under the Emirates SkyCargo name. Its main base is Dubai International Airport.

Emirates SkyCargo : Emirates SkyCargo is a cargo airline based at Dubai International Airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is a subsidiary of Emirates and started operations in October 1985. It operates dedicated cargo flights to 30 destinations in 22 countries, whilst using bellyhold capacity in the Emirates passenger fleet.

Etihad Airways : Etihad Airways is the national airline of the United Arab Emirates. Etihad is based in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.
'‘Etihad’' (Arabic: federation or union) is the Arabic abbreviation for the United Arab Emirates. It operates services to the Middle East, Europe, Indian Subcontinent, North America, Far East and Oceania. Its main base is Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Etihad Crystal Cargo : Etihad Crystal Cargo is Etihad's cargo division, operating a fleet of three A300-600F freighter aircraft. It started operations in September 2004. Etihad Crystal Cargo flew the first commercial cargo flight between Abu Dhabi International Airport and Frankfurt International Airport. Etihad Crystal Cargo is also experiencing significant growth and is expected to double its turnover of Dh361.50 million (US$98.5 million) in 2005 to over Dh734 million (US$200 million) in 2006. Crystal handled 115,000 tonnes of cargo in 2005, about 50 per cent of the cargo uplifted from Abu Dhabi airport. Etihad’s new facility at Abu Dhabi airport will be equipped to handle more than 500,000 tonnes annually. With engine efficiency improvements and design changes that increase payload capabilities up to 20 tonnes per flight, some of the new aircraft, that have recently joined Etihad’s fleet, particularly the Airbus A330-200 and Boeing 777-300ER will play a significant role in cargo expansion.

Falcon Aviation Services : Falcon Aviation Services (FAS) is an airline based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It operates business jet and helicopter charter services, as well as search and rescue operations for the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces . Its main base is Bateen Airport.

Falcon Express Cargo Airlines : Falcon Express Cargo Airlines is a cargo airline based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was established in 1995 and operates express parcel services throughout the Persian Gulf, mainly for FedEx. Its main base is Dubai International Airport.

HeavyLift International : Jupiter Airlines is an airline based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It began by flying domestic routes within the United Arab Emirates, but has added various major cities in the Middle East to their list of destinations. In December 2004, they launched a service between Dubai and Baghdad .

JetSet Cargo :

Jupiter Airlines :

Kinshasa Airways : Kinshasa Airways is a cargo airline based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It was established in 2002 and operates cargo services from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Middle East.
As of June 2006, Kinshasa Airways is on the List of air carriers banned in the EU.

Maximus Air Cargo : Maximus Air Cargo is a cargo airline based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It started operations in 2003 and provides outsize and general cargo transport using Antonov An-124, Ilyushin Il-76 and Lockheed Hercules aircraft leased in as required. It is the largest all cargo airline in the UAE and premier operator of outsized cargo aircraft in the Middle East.

Phoenix Aviation : Phoenix Aviation was an airline based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It was established and started operations in 1996 and operated passenger and freight services. Its main base was Sharjah International Airport, with hubs at Bishkek airport (FRU) and Jinnah International Airport (KHI), Karachi.
Phoenix Aviation of Kyrgyzstan was blacklisted by the British government due to poor safety standards, and is now added to a newly created European Union blacklist in 2006.

Pluto Airlines : Pluto Airlines is an airline based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It is a start-up airline planning to operate the Sharjah to Muscat route and later extend its network to Dakar.

RAK Airways : RAK Airways is the future national airline of Ras Al Khaimah, one of the four in United Arab Emirates. The airline is planning to launch operations early in 2007 with two Boeing 757-200 aircraft.
The airline is also in talks with Indian Low-cost Carrier SpiceJet for a possible interline agreement between them. RAK airways eventually plans to fly to destinations in Iran also.
The airline may start charter and scheduled services from its Ras al Khaimah base as early as April 2007 using a Boeing 737-300 and a Boeing 757-200 aircraft.
As of May 2007, beginning of operation has been delayed and chief executive refuses to speculate whether the airline would even launch in 2007. (source Gulf News)
The first 757 is ready, with RAK livery: http://www.airteamimages.com/39259.html.

Royal Jet : Royal Jet is an airline based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It is a charter operator aimed at the luxury market between the UAE and Europe. Its main base is Abu Dhabi International Airport, with hubs at Dubai International Airport and King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Reem Air :

StarJet :

There is Click Airways (of Kyrgyzstan, founded 2003) and Click Airways International (of Armenia, founded 2006)... Not counting Click Airways in Spain, a lowcost operator & subsidiary of Iberia and I think we can rule that one out in this matter.

Click Airways (right) has:
IL-76TD EX-035 (c/n 9349862) [airliners.net]
An-12BP EX-169 (c/n 1348005) airliners.net
An-26B EX-106 (c/n 97308303) nil found A.net

&

Click Airways Int'l (below) has:
An-12BP EK-11107 (c/n 5343506) nil A.net...
An-12BP EK-11418 (c/n 7344705) nil A.net...

The screendumps are courtesy Aerotransport.org (ATDB)

I wonder if the fact that EX-035 has been flying in SE Asia (o.b.o. Imtrec) had anything to do with Mr Bout's visit to Bangkok.

REACTIONS WELCOMED !!

Merchant of Death, the book... Former West African Bureau Chief of the Washington Post, Douglas Farah and Los Angeles Times National Correspondent, Stephen Braun detail how a small circle of U.S. officials and international investigators worked doggedly to shut down Viktor Bout's arms pipelines, only to be trumped by Bout's ingenuity and by their own inability-and, in some cases, unwillingness- to confront the dark side of the new world order.

Published in 2007:

Updates & comments welcomed.

Victor Bout, the Official Website
Website of Sharjah Aint'l Airport

Back to Victor Bout's file

Created 21-Jul-2008,
Updated 21-Jul-2008