Saturday 23 September 2017

RUSSIA: Nordwind Airlines Leasing Two Boeing 777-300ER Widebody Airliners

Russian carrier Nordwind Airlines is leasing two Boeing 777-300ER widebody airliners from Dubai-based lessor DAE Capital (part of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise). The aircraft were previously operated by EVA Air of Taiwan.

To implement its feeder strategy, which covers 200 destinations, in the coming fall-winter season, Nordwind Airlines continues to expand its widebody fleet and is preparing to put two Boeing 777-300s into operation.

The first of the two aircraft arrived at the airline’s home base Sheremetyevo on August 31.

Following the requisite customs procedures, in early September the airliner will start performing charter flights from Moscow.

The carrier will receive the second aircraft next week.

The two Boeings, to be registered as VP-BJL and VP-BJO, were built in 2005.

They will become the first airliners in Nordwind’s fleet to have a three-class cabin layout,312 seats in total: 38 in business, 63 in premium economy, and 211 in coach.

Nordwind already operates four Boeing 777-200s, which seat 393 passengers in two classes.

The new addition will bring the carrier’s total fleet up to 22 aircraft.

It also has Airbus A330-200s, A321s, and additional four airframes are expected to be delivered by year-end.

Nordwind’s passenger traffic grew 85.4% year-on-year in January-July 2017, reaching 1.598 million; its seat load factor droped by 2.9 percentage points to 86.9%.

Nordwind Airlines is a Russian scheduled and charter airline.

The company is headquartered in Moscow, with its main hub at Sheremetyevo International Airport.

Nordwind Airlines primarily operates service between airports in Russia and holiday destinations around the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean.

Nordwind Airlines was founded in August 2008 by the Russian and Turkish branches of tour operator Pegas Touristik, initially operating 3 Boeing 757-200 aircraft to/from 6 cities.

Since then, the fleet has been greatly expanded, including the introduction of the Airbus A321 and the Boeing 767-300.

By 2015, Nordwind operated service to/from 33 cities.

In 2017, the company expanded its fleet with 2 A330s.

The number of passengers transported was as follows:

Year Passengers
2008 20,000
2009 555,000
2010 1.2 million
2011 1.7 million
2012 2.2 million
2013 3.4 million
2014 4.4 million


Nordwind operates service to Europe, Middle East and Africa,South America and Asia.



Tourism Observer

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