The mysterious case of the airline that has been operating for 34 years without having managed to get a single plane off the ground

Imagine starting an airline, buying planes, hiring staff and preparing endless logistics operations, but never having a single passenger. It sounds like a story straight out of a David Lynch movie, but this is the reality for an airline that has been in the air for more than three decades. Although it sounds incredible, this airline has been operating for 34 years without ever having managed to get a single passenger on board.

The history of this airline, which began under the name Baltia Airlines in 1989, is a real enigma. Founded by Igor Dmitrowsky, a Latvian immigrant living in the United States, the company was born with the ambitious intention of connecting New York with St. Petersburg. At that time, in the midst of Perestroika, routes to the former Soviet Union seemed like a golden opportunity, and Dmitrowsky was determined to seize it.

After selling his dairy distribution company and gathering a group of investors, he purchased a Boeing 747-200 from Cathay Pacific, with the goal of beginning transatlantic flights between the United States and the then Soviet Union. In addition, Dmitrovsky planned to expand routes to Belarus, Estonia, Ukraine and Georgia. The idea was to take advantage of the growing interest in routes to the Soviet bloc, which at the time seemed to have great business potential. However, despite these grand plans, problems soon arose.

Igor Dmitrowsky, a Latvian immigrant living in the United States, saw his chance to strike gold in the midst of Perestroika

The first major hurdle came in 1998, when the airline obtained permission from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to operate flights between John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Pulkovo Airport (LED) in St. Petersburg. But the authorization was revoked shortly after due to the company's lack of funds. Authorities were reportedly doubtful that Baltia Airlines could guarantee safe operations, especially when it came to emergency evacuations.

Despite the setback, the company did not give up. It managed to attract new investors and acquired more planes, including a Boeing 747-200 from Pakistan International Airlines and another from Northwest Airlines. But neither of them managed to take off. Eventually, both aircraft were dismantled and sold for scrap, leaving the airline without an operational fleet.

Once it became USGlobal Airways, the airline attempted to focus on domestic flights and then copy Norwegian's model, without success.

In 2017, the company attempted to reinvent itself under the new name USGlobal Airways. It moved to Stewart International Airport (SWF) in New York and abandoned the idea of ​​transatlantic flights. Instead, it planned to operate regional routes to cities such as Albany, Baltimore, Long Island and Trenton. However, history repeated itself and the plans never materialized.

Despite the repeated failures, USGlobal Airways changed its strategy again, once again betting on transoceanic flights. It signed an agreement with Kalitta Air to lease a Boeing 767-300ER and announced its intention to connect Stewart with less-busy European airports, following a model similar to that of Norwegian Air Shuttle and WOW Air. But, once again, the plane never took off under its own banner.

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After so many years of broken promises and unexpected turns, there is no shortage of theories about what really happened to the airline. For some experts, it was a case of chaotic management accompanied by a series of bad decisions. For others, the story has a tinge of fraud. In 2016, a senior executive was accused of misleading investors, and in 2019, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoked the listing of the company's shares for financial breaches.

Today, USGlobal Airways is little more than a strange chapter in aviation history. An airline that, after more than three decades, never got off the ground.