The President of Kyrgyzstan Airlines (KA) signed a Term Sheet on 10th January with ILFC for a 1990 RR-powered B757-200, and it is understood that the deal covers two aircraft in total. A Term Sheet, of course, means nothing in this business. Most lessors receive about 20 signed Term Sheets for every signed contract. The intention, anyway, is to operate through Bishkek to Delhi. I understand they also have plans for Amritsar. The aircraft are to be crewed, I believe, by Kazakhstanis.
Kyrgyzstan Airlines are working through "Payless Travel" in the UK as their General Sales Agent, and the word is that Payless are actually funding the whole deal - aircraft deposits, lease payments etc. Theoretically they are due to start operating in the middle of February, on Fridays and Sundays initially, but tickets certainly weren't being sold when Payless were contacted earlier this week.
So far so good? Wrong! KA are as bust on a scale that is hard to comprehend, and have substantial debts at many of the points that they are planning to operate to or through. While the all-too-familiar KA Tu154M may not whet the creditors' appetite for the placing of a lien, the sight of a 1990-build B757-200 taxiing towards the terminal would be an altogether-different story! (The point about R8 and K2 is an interesting one in this context. But I can't see it fooling a determined creditor). To compound the felony, there are allegations that the proprietor of their chosen UK partner - Payless - may himself have a "colourful" track record in terms of business solvency!
All rather depressing. BHX really needs and merits a stable, efficient, high quality operation into India, but the chances of it being provided by Kyrgyzstan Airlines seem about as likely as George Bush and Saddam Hussein having a gay affair.