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Ato.ru has reported that the airline, named Sky Airlines Gates, was founded in Moscow in April and is owned by Sky Gates Rus. The latter company is 80% owned by Alexander Khmelnitsky and 20% owned by Russia's Globus Distribution Management, which, according to the website, is registered at the same address in Moscow as ASG.

Based on information from Russia's register of legal entities, ZIA Valda, a company controlled by ASG Chairman Gediminas Ziemelis, is the founder and sole shareholder of Globus Distribution Management.

Reportedly, the cargo airline plans to launch operations in September with one Boeing 747-400F aircraft. It expects to add two more aircraft of the same type to its fleet in 2017.

Plans to establish a new company were unveiled during the opening of Zhukovsky, the fourth international airport in the Moscow region, earlier this week. A cargo terminal at the airport, built and operated by ASG together with partners, is planned to be opened in the autumn of 2017.

The ASG Group consists of the business-class charter carrier KlasJet, the ground handling and aircraft fuelling services provider Baltic Ground Services, the aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services company FL Technics, the helicopter MRO services provider Helisota and the tour operator Kidy Tour. Ziemelis also was a key shareholder of the bankrupt airline flyLAL.