In 2016, a new Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance, and Insurance (ACMI) and charter airline entered Lithuania’s aviation market.
The carrier, GetJet Airlines, began its journey with a single Boeing 737-400 and, following the collapse of Small Planet Airlines, another ACMI and charter airline in Lithuania, and its fleet grew to 25 aircraft.
The airline’s fleet fluctuated throughout the years, as aircraft entered and left the airline’s operations, including the Baltic States’ first wide-body jet, an Airbus A330. As the company grew, expanding into other markets, one question remained: who was the ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) of the airline? This was particularly interesting owing to the fact that another Limited Liability Company (LLC) was established under the GetJet name in 2014, according to data from Rekvizitai.vz.lt, a Lithuanian business information portal and database.
The true beneficiary of GetJet Airlines/Airhub Airlines
There have also been other links between GetJet Airlines and Airhub Airlines in the past.
After an Airhub Airlines Airbus A320, registered as 9H-EMU, was involved in an incident at Paris Charles De Gaulle International Airport (CDG) in May 2022, where it came within six feet (1.8 meters) of hitting the ground while on approach at the airport, a representative of GetJet Airlines denied that the two entities are related. However, another media outlet in Lithuania reported that, when the owners of GetJet Airlines consolidated the management of the airline’s subsidiaries (operating in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, under a holding company in Cyprus called GJT Holdings), they also owned the Malta-based Airhub Airlines. The Maltese airline has operated other aircraft previously owned by GetJet Airlines, namely an Airbus A330, now registered as 9H-LEON (previous registration LY-LEO), while an Airbus A320 (now registered as LY-FAS) was previously associated with Airhub Airlines under the registration 9H-FAST, according to planespoters.net data.
The two companies have also partnered to establish Airhub Training, a pilot training center at Vilnius International Airport (VNO). Airhub Training is a daughter company of Airhub Aviation and, according to a press release shared by the training provider, began to train cadets in October 2021 for GetJet Airlines.
At the time, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Airhub Training Rūta Kulvinskaitė commented that the first group of cadets “marked a new chapter for our aviation training center”. Kulvinskaitė later became the CEO of GetJet Airlines in March 2022, without stepping down from her executive role at the training center. According to her LinkedIn profile, she is the full-time CEO of GetJet Airline while also covering her duties as the CEO of Airhub Training on a part-time basis.
Furthermore, Šulija & Partners, a law firm based in Vilnius, Lithuania, indicated that it “advised a Cypriot company Airhub Aviation and a local airline UAB “GetJet Airlines” on the financing of 2 Diamond DA40NG and 1 Diamond DA42-V1 aircraft and 1 Diamond Convertible Flight Simulator”. According to the law firm, the transaction was worth more than €2 million ($2.1 million).
According to ch-aviation.com data, the aircraft involved in the May 2022 incident, has spent 169.92 hours in the air, completing 69 flight cycles so far in 2023. In 2022, it operated a total of 844 flight cycles, with only 19 cycles performed between January and April the same year.
The aircraft is currently stationed at VNO where it is undergoing maintenance, per ch-aviation.com data. Meanwhile, flightradar24.com information shows that, since operating for Surinam Airways under its flight codes, presumably because it was wet-leased to the flag carrier of Suriname, the aircraft returned to VNO on January 30, 2023. It was scheduled to fly on March 9, 2023, under the GetJet Airlines flight code GW1, which had previously been used twice during 2023. Instead, another Airhub Airlines Airbus A320, registered as 9H-HUB, used the flight code GW1 to conduct flight tests above the airport in the Lithuanian capital, per flightradar24.com data.
The aircraft using the same flight codes was LY-EMU, a GetJet Airlines Airbus A320 performing two tests that departed and landed at VNO on February 8, 2023. LY-EMU also presumably returned from operating wet lease agreements with Iraq’s UR Airlines and later, TUI fly.
9H-EMU was also previously registered as part of the GetJet Airlines fleet, as LY-FOX.
Cypriot and Maltese Airhub and GetJet Airlines links
While Airhub Airlines’ website states that it is “an EU-based airline with its headquarters in Malta”, there are companies with the same name registered in Cyprus. According to the Cypriot Companies Section website, Airhub Aviation, Airhub Investments, and GJT Holdings, the holding company that manages GetJet Airlines’ other subsidiaries, all have the same directors.
The three listed directors are Andri Xenofontos, Maria Fylaktou (on behalf of Andri Xenofontos), and a company called Cyproservus Co. The two Cypriot Airhub and GetJet companies have the same listed address, Georgiou Karaiskaki Street 13, Limassol, Cyprus.
Meanwhile, the Malta Business Registry (MBR) lists two companies, Airhub Airlines and Airhub Holdings. The former is the shareholder of the latter, and the director of Airhub Holdings is listed as Alexander Celiadin, while the shareholder is a Cypriot company, Aeroassets Investment. According to the Cypriot Companies Section, Aeroassets Investment shares the same three directors and the same address as the Cypriot entities of Airhub and GJT Holdings.
Celiadin’s LinkedIn profile lists him as the Chairman of GetJet Airlines, Airhub Aviation, and Airhub Aviation Training. Celiadin, who has a brother Dmitrij Celiadin, is also associated with another company, Aviatic MRO. The Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) company is based at Šiauliai International Airport (SQQ), a non-commercial airport, where Aviatic MRO aims, according to its website, to “become a leading center for maintenance in the region, providing a wide range of services, including line and base maintenance, continuing airworthiness management and spare parts supply.”
SQQ is also the base of NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission.
Aviatic MRO was established under the legal name “Termicom”, according to Rekvizitai.vz.lt.
According to several local media reports, including an investigation conducted by Delfi, Aviatic MRO is owned by the same company that also owns GetJet Airlines, an Estonia-registered Completec. According to the Estonian company registry, Completec’s only representative is listed as Dmirtij Celiadin, while the only shareholder with a 100% stake is Aviatic Investments, a Lithuanian company also owned by Celiadin. Data from Rekvizitai.vz.lt shows that the company has been deregistered since October 2021. However, the Estonian entity is still active and Celiadin is listed as the beneficial owner.
Rekvizitai.vz.lt data also highlighted that between 2014 and 2016, Termicom, the company now known as Aviatic MRO, was named Elteza. Elteza is also the name of a Russia-based company that manufactures various products for railway transport. According to the company’s website, a controlling stake is owned by Russian Railways, the state-owned company responsible for the rail network in Russia. The Delfi investigation found that the domain elteza.eu, which is now down, was owned by Celiadin and redirected to the Russian company’s website.
The article was supplemented with a comment from UAB GetJet Airlines:
“<…> GetJet Airlines UAB began its operations as an air operator in 2016 which is clearly stated on its website https://getjet.aero/about-us/company/ and in the very first paragraph of the Article itself, too. While the collapse of Small Planet Airlines took place in late 2018. <…>
<…> GetJet Airlines UAB had no contacts with Russian business enterprises, mentioned in last three paragraphs of the Article (GetJet Airlines UAB was not even owned by Completec by the moment referred to in the publication), so these paragraphs should be understood as deliberate manipulation of readers without good knowledge of factual circumstances. <…>
<…> the author of the Article failed to get acquainted with the public information, announced more than 1 year ago (https://www.vz.lt/transportas-logistika/2022/03/14/getjet-imones-baltijos-salyse-buriamos-i-grupe&a75e0e79bc34d), disclosing the corporate structure of the group owning GetJet Airlines UAB, or seek official information (contrary to the allegations, GetJet Airlines UAB was neither owned by an Estonia-registered Completec, nor controlled by Dmitrij Celiadin at the moment of publication).”
AeroTime would like to clarify that the brothers’ Celiadin‘s names are omitted following the first mention of their respective names in the paragraphs discussing their business ventures and alleged business connections. The article’s last two paragraphs exclusively discuss Dmitrij Celiadin’s business ventures. Furthermore, the previous version of this article spelled the name Dmitrij [Celiadin] as Dmirtij, which has now been rectified.
