Citation
(2009), "Aeroflot reiterates fleet investment commitment – todays delivery of first A330 heralds enhanced long-haul service", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 81 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2009.12781bab.027
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Aeroflot reiterates fleet investment commitment – todays delivery of first A330 heralds enhanced long-haul service
Article Type: News and views From: Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology: An International Journal, Volume 81, Issue 2
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While competitors withdraw aircraft orders, Aeroflot remains committed to fleet renewal and expansion programme.
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First of ten new A330-200s delivered at ceremony in Moscow TODAY.
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Aeroflot’s new improved long-haul product to extend presence on key Asian and Far Eastern routes.
Aeroflot today receives the first of ten Airbus 330-200s aircraft marking the beginning of a new era of superior long-haul air travel whilst affirming the Russian airline’s ambitious fleet renewal and expansion programme at a time when most competitors are scaling back on fleet development and investment.
During the delivery ceremony at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, attended by Aeroflot’s CEO Valery Okulov, Airbus’s VP Eastern Europe & Russia Andreas Kramer and Nick Deval, VP of Rolls Royce, the air carrier stresses its aircraft expansion objectives, highlighting the aim to increase its fleet by 144 per cent by 2018 to compete with the world’s best airlines.
“We remain highly committed to our fleet renewal and expansion schedule and continue to build for Aeroflot’s future with ongoing aircraft investments. Our airline is certainly an exception to the rule in the current economic environment. We are weathering any challenges and focus on the overriding economic benefits of a younger and more modern fleet,” says Aeroflot’s CEO Valery Okulov.
“An important key to our expansion programme are strong and longstanding relationships with business partners, such as Airbus and Rolls Royce. Whereas the A320 is the backbone of our regional and medium-haul route network, the new A330s are a strategic investment into our future long-haul product offering,” adds Okulov.
Earlier this year, Aeroflot signed a contract for five new Airbus 321 aircraft worth around £226 million planned to be employed on the airline’s growing European and domestic mid-haul flight network. These orders were placed on top of substantial existing Airbus orders involving 38 A320s and 22 A350s that are all due to be delivered over the next decade.
Aeroflot’s aircraft acquisitions are part of one of the largest fleet expansion and renewal programmes in global civil aviation. As a result of the new acquisitions, the airline’s average fleet age has already been lowered to less than four years, thus making it one of the youngest fleets in the world. To date the Russian carrier has placed total orders of 129 new aircraft, including Boeing B787-8 Dreamliners, to be delivered from 2014 onwards, and 30 Russian-manufactured Sukhoi SSJ – 100 for regional routes.
The A330-200s aircraft will be leased on a ten-year basis from Dutch company Aercap. With a range of up to 12,500 km, they will be employed on prime routes from Moscow to Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong as well as to North American destinations. The first A330-200, named after the late Russian conductor Eugene Svetlanov, whose Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra performed at the delivery ceremony, will service the Moscow to Tokyo and Moscow to Shanghai routes starting from January 2009.
Operating a two-class layout with 34 business class and 207 economy class seats, the new A330-200s will exemplify superior in-flight service and entertainment, meeting international standards of premium long-haul air travel. Whilst all seats will be equipped with satellite phones and built-in video monitors; Aeroflot’s new bespoke interior aircraft design focuses on creating all-important extra space for each passenger through fold-out chair beds and generous seat configurations.
Future transit flights through Moscow will be via the highly anticipated Terminal 3 at Sheremetyevo Airport, Moscow’s biggest airport located seven kilometres north of the Russian capital. Aeroflot has invested $500 million in the Sheremetyevo development, which is expected to be completed next year. It will boast a state-of-the-art building complex and an expected an annual capacity of 9-12 million passengers.
“There is an enormous demand potential for air travel from Russia, the CIS and Europe to Asia and it is our aim to build and strengthen our presence in this key market. Geographically speaking, Moscow is ideally positioned between east and west, and combined with the new modern Terminal 3, will provide the optimum stop-off point for transit to Asia,” concludes Okulov.
Media contacts
Katharina Winkler, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, Tel.: +44 207 3091027, E-mail: katharina.winkler@uk.ogilvypr.com
Rebecca Perfect, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, Tel.: +44 207 3091009, E-mail: rebecca.perfect@uk.ogilvypr.com
Aeroflot International Press Office, 125167, Moscow, Leningradsky pr. 37/12, room 424. Tel./Fax: +7(495)752 90 71, Tel.: +7(495)903 98 20, E-mail: presscentr@aeroflot.ru, web site: www.aeroflot.ru
Editor’s notes
OJSC “Aeroflot – Russian Airlines” is based in Moscow, Russia, at the Sheremetyevo Airport. The company was established in 1923. It is Russia’s largest air carrier with 45 per cent of international and 12.5 per cent (17 per cent counting affiliated companies) of domestic carriages in Russia. In 2007, it carried eight million passengers (ten million together with its subsidiaries) to 96 locations in 49 countries. It operates a fleet of 88 aircraft. Aeroflot is a member of the global airline alliance SkyTeam.
The International Airline Trade Association is aimed at positively impacting the aviation industry’s agenda on safety, security, environment issues as well as simplifying business and government regulations, represents 230 airlines from 126 countries and comprises 93 per cent of scheduled international air traffic.