Nordwind Airlines

Is Nordwind safe?

Nordwind has never lost a passenger. Its one written-off aircraft, an Airbus A321 at Antalya in 2020, was flying empty with seven crew, and everyone walked away. What weighs on its score of 53 is what came after that accident and after 2022. The airline was slow to report the crash, and investigators believe its flight recorders were moved before they arrived. Since 2022 it has also been on the EU Air Safety ListEU Air Safety ListThe European Commission's list of airlines banned or restricted from flying in EU airspace because they do not meet international safety standards.More in the glossary and under a US export denial order, and US filings describe repeated apparent violations of it. That puts it one point behind Ural Airlines and a few points behind Pobeda.

The Antalya accident and the recorders

On 10 January 2020, flight 1801 was positioning an A321 from Moscow Sheremetyevo to Antalya to fly a holiday service home. The approach to runway 36C was stable at 1,000 feet, but strong tailwinds had left the jet high, and below 100 feet the speed fell away. At 20 feet, with the speed still dropping, the captain pushed the sidestick sharply forward and the thrust levers went to full power. Two seconds later the nose gear struck the runway at 2.64 g.

The jet bounced into the air. Three of its inertial reference units failed one after another, the flight controls dropped to direct law, the gear would not come up, smoke appeared in the cockpit, and both main hydraulic systems failed. The crew declared Mayday twice, flew past the tower to have the gear checked, and landed. The nose gear strut had been driven up through the cabin floor. The aircraft was written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary.

MAK's final report, released in Russian only, blamed the captain's full forward sidestick input during a shallow flare, a late go-around and the crew's lack of flare skills. We count this as a crew-caused hull loss without injuries. The second part of the story goes in the incident factor, because it is a separate act that did not cause the accident. Nordwind told Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) about the accident only on 14 January, four days later (ASN). MAK's final report found that both recorders had been moved several times between Nordwind's store and the aircraft, and that the voice recorder was fitted to another A321 for the return flight to Moscow, then carried back to Antalya in hand luggage on an Aeroflot flight and refitted to the damaged jet before the inquiry team arrived. By then the accident flight had been recorded over. MAK put the loss of the recording down to rule breaches by Nordwind officials and two contracted maintenance firms, NV Technic and RMS Technic. Flight recorders are what investigators rely on most, and handling them this way is a serious failure of safety culture.

Nordwind and Pegas Fly

Nordwind is the larger of two airlines tied to the Pegas Touristik tour group. The other is Pegas Fly, which flies under the certificate of Ikar LLC with the EO code. They are separate airlines on the EU list (Nord Wind AOC 516, Ikar AOC 36), so we count each one's events on its own record. In June 2023 the US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added Pegas Touristik to Nordwind's denial order as a related person, citing Russian reports that named it Nordwind's owner and a shared founder who also controls Pegas Fly. BIS also said it had reason to believe Pegas Touristik chartered a Turkish airline to fly US-origin aircraft into Russia.

Sanctions and the fleet

Nordwind flies Airbus and Boeing aircraft only: A321s, A330-200s, Boeing 737-800s and Boeing 777s, including 777-200s, an older version of the type. Since February 2022, US rules have required a licence, normally refused, for aircraft parts going to Russia, and Airbus has stopped supporting Russian airlines.

BIS first denied Nordwind export privileges on 24 June 2022, after its jets flew into Russia from Yerevan, Istanbul and Sharm el-Sheikh without a licence. It has renewed the order five times, most recently in December 2025 for a full year, finding a "pattern of repeated, ongoing and/or continuous apparent violations". The latest order lists 737-800s RA-73313, RA-73314 and RA-73317 flying between Russia and Bokhtar, Osh and Bishkek in October 2025.

Oversight

In April 2022 the European Commission put LLC Nord Wind on the EU Air Safety ListEU Air Safety ListThe European Commission's list of airlines banned or restricted from flying in EU airspace because they do not meet international safety standards.More in the glossary because Rosaviatsia let Russian airlines fly foreign-owned aircraft without valid certificates of airworthiness, and it was still there on 9 June 2026. ICAO posted a Significant Safety Concern against Russia over the same issue on 15 June 2022. Nordwind is an IATA member, which requires an IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit, but Russia stopped renewing IOSA audits in 2022 and no audit since can be confirmed. We score oversight 20, the same as Rossiya and Aeroflot, which were not on the IOSA registry in October 2026.

Incidents

AeroInside logged about 25 Nordwind events from 2012 to November 2021, almost all technical: engine shutdowns on an A330 and a 777, hydraulic failures on A321s, cabins that would not pressurise, a 777 engine fire warning at Cayo Coco in Cuba in 2021. None was a runway excursionRunway excursionWhen an aircraft leaves the runway surface during take-off or landing, either off the end (an overrun) or off the side (a veer-off).More in the glossary. In April 2013 an A320 crew reported two missiles passing near the aircraft over Syria; we describe that but do not count it, as it was not the airline's doing. Nothing appears there after 2021, which reflects how little Russian data now leaves the country. Russian press and MAK fill part of the gap:

• February 2025. A flight from Moscow to Cuba landed at St Petersburg Pulkovo after a suspected engine failure.
• Moscow Sheremetyevo, 16 December 2025. The captain of flight 4551, a Boeing 777 bound for Cayo Coco with 432 passengers and 21 crew, rejected the take-off after a problem with the right engine. No one was hurt.
• Ufa to Bokhtar, 20 August 2026. A 737-800 with 152 passengers lost cabin pressure during the descent into Tajikistan and landed safely. MAK, the Interstate Aviation Committee, formed a commission to investigate, which it does for serious incidents.

All three were technical failures that the crews handled, but two engine events and a depressurisation in 18 months on a fleet without factory support are worth knowing about.

Flying Nordwind on a package holiday

• Your tour operator may switch airlines. Holiday packages from Pegas Touristik can be flown by Nordwind or by Pegas Fly, and the two have different records. Check the operator on your ticket.
• Allow for airport closures. EASA's bulletin for Russian airspace west of 60° East, valid until January 2027, warns that air-defence activity against drones can close Moscow and other major airports at short notice. Leave a day's margin before a cruise or a connecting flight abroad.

How we scored it

The accident record (80) has no deaths and one crew-caused hull lossHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary with only crew on board. Oversight (20) reflects the EU ban, ICAO's open concern and no IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit confirmed since 2022. The fleet (45) mixes newer Airbus jets with older 777s, all cut off from factory support, and the incident record (40) is pulled down by how the Antalya recorders were handled and by a 2026 depressurisation that MAK investigates. For an airline in the same group of Russian carriers with no hull loss, see Rossiya.