RUSSIA: Aeroflot To Acquire Six New Boeing 777s

Russia’s Aeroflot Group intends to acquire six new Boeing 777-300ER (Extended Range) widebodies.

The plan will be submitted to the next Board of Directors meeting, which is scheduled for August 31.

Together with the expected deliveries of five new Airbus A350s, the planned acquisition would expand the group’s widebody long-range fleet by 20%.

It has not yet been disclosed which of the group’s subsidiary carriers will get the new Boeings.

Flag carrier Aeroflot currently operates 16 777-300ERs, while sister company Rossiya Airlines has one 777-200 an five 777-300s.

No details have been revealed as to the possible delivery schedule. Aeroflot’s May 2017 investor presentation suggested that five of the Boeings could enter service with the airline in 2018.

The previous contract, for 16 of the type, has now been completed, with all the airliners delivered between February 2013 and June this year.

Another issue to be discussed by the upcoming meeting is Aeroflot’s plan to sell four Airbus A321s, serial numbers 3267 (VP-BUM), 3334 (VP-BUP), 4099 (VQ-BEE), and 4148 (VQ-BEI).

All four are equipped with CFM International engines.

According to open sources, Aeroflot has been the sole operator of these aircraft, and their age ranges from 7.7 to 9.9 years.

The average age of Aeroflot’s fleet currently stands at 4.3 years.

The total fleet of Aeroflot Group, whose subsidiaries also include Pobeda Airlines and Aurora Airlines, is currently nearing 300 aircraft not including the six Antonov An-148s and a single An-24 that the group is subleasing.

Plans for this year included taking delivery of 59 airliners and phasing out 19. The planned numbers for 2018 are 45 and 17 aircraft, respectively.




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RUSSIA: Russian Carriers Flew 6.02 Million Passengers In February 2017,Air Traffic Grew By 17% By February

Russian carriers served 6.02 million passengers in February 2017.

Russian airlines' cumulative passenger traffic climbed 16.7% in February this year, reaching 6.02 million passengers, citing head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Neradko.

The figures suggest that the year-on-year growth trend for Russian air traffic established earlier this year is continuing, albeit at a slower pace than January's 20.2%.

No details have been provided on the shares of international versus domestic traffic.

Notably, the growth in January was mostly generated on international routes, in line with the trend that first manifested itself in December 2016 following the recent downturn.

Commenting on the January results, Neradko said that the Russian commercial aviation sector had overcome the crisis on the wave of a strengthening national currency.

All of Russia's top five airlines demonstrated traffic growth consistent with the average figures across the sector.

The highest growth rate, at 116.5% YoY, was demonstrated by Rossiya Airlines, a subsidiary of Aeroflot Group. The operator had merged with sister companies OrenAir and Donavia in April last year, which explains its high YoY growth rate in the months following the merger.

With the OrenAir and Donavia traffic not factored in, Rossiya's traffic grew 12.4% in February.

Rossiya, which is now Russia's third largest passenger operator, served 561,700 passengers last month.
Aeroflot carried 2.2 million passengers, up 11.3% on February 2016.

S7 Airlines' traffic grew just 2.7% to 610,900 passengers, whereas UTair Aviation saw its traffic surge 19.5% to 459,000 passengers. Ural Airlines showed an impressive growth of 27.4% to 393,600 passengers.

According to Neradko, the cumulative traffic volume processed by Russian carriers in February increased 20.7% YoY to 15.06 billion passenger kilometers. The seat load factor across the sector grew 2.7 percentage points to 78.2%.