Moldavian Airlines was the first private airline of the Republic of Moldova back in 1994, the year of airline's birth. It all started with regular flights between Chisinau and Moscow, while Moldavian Airlines started to operate daily flights to Moscow's airport of Domodedovo. It helped to offer Moldovan passengers immediate and excellent connections to Siberia region, as, at that time Domodedovo airport was famous for its Siberia-bound traffic. First flights were a scheduled route using an Yakovlev Yak-42 short haul jet leased from Ukraine which was flown in basic Aeroflot livery but with Moldavian Airlines titles, as were most former Soviet Union countries' airliners at that time. The Yak also had the original Moldavian Airlines' logo on the fin green on white. In 1995 the Yak-42 was returned and replaced with two purchased Yak-40 jets. The fleet was changed again in 1996 when Moldavian Airlines chose the larger Tupolev Tu-134. Moldavian Airlines understood that there was no perspective in its activity while using obsolete Soviet aircraft. So in 1997 it started a programme of renewal of its fleet. The airline added modern western aircraft in the form of a Saab 340 turboprop twin, leased from former Crossair. The Saab 340 was introduced in the new Moldavian Airlines livery - an attractive two-tone green design with the airline's ICAO code 'MDV' on the fin in white. At present Moldavian Airlines is solving the problems of route profitability: using flexible price policy, improving the service and looking for non-standard solutions in the market. As one of the ways of solving these problems 'we think of using small planes on short-distance routes' - says Moldavian Airlines' President & CEO Mr. Nicolae Petrov.