| Aeroflot will take foreign cars from its subsidiary Aeroflot has developed a new scheme for purchasing foreign aircraft - leasing aircraft from its own subsidiary. As the specialized news agency Avia-Port reported yesterday, this idea is interconnected with the fleet renewal program of Aeroflot-Nord, based in Arkhangelsk. Aeroflot-Nord last year announced its intention to purchase five Boeing-737-500 aircraft to service its regional route network. According to the Avia-Port agency, now we are talking about purchasing ten of these machines, and some of them, together with the “Arkhangelsk crews,” will be used on the routes of the parent company from Moscow.
Aeroflot press secretary Irina Dannenberg confirmed to Vremya Novostey yesterday that such a project is being worked on. According to her, delivery of the Boeing 737 to Aeroflot-Nord is expected to begin this year and be completed in two years. The aircraft will be leased on the world market, imported into Russia with full payment of customs duties and registered to the Arkhangelsk airline. It, in turn, will transfer them to Aeroflot on a “wet lease,” that is, on an operating lease with a crew.
Aeroflot intends to operate the Arkhangelsk Boeings temporarily (about five years), until Russian regional RRJ aircraft, designed by the aviation holding company (AHC) Sukhoi, enter the company's fleet. Last year, Aeroflot and AHK signed a contract for 30 RRJs, with deliveries scheduled to begin in 2008.
The advantages of purchasing a Boeing 737 through Aeroflot-Nord for Aeroflot include minimizing financial costs. The costs of creating the material and technical base for these liners in Arkhangelsk promise to be less than in Moscow. Deploying such a base in the capital would not make sense, since Aeroflot does not currently operate the Boeing-737 and does not plan to do so in the long term, after receiving the RRJ. The Arkhangelsk Boeings will then be returned to their place of permanent residence, where they will form the basis of the Aeroflot-Nord fleet.
Staff costs in Arkhangelsk should also be less burdensome for the employer than in the capital.
The crews, however, will have to be recruited in Moscow, at least partially. Aeroflot-Nord, created in 2004 on the basis of the Arkhangelsk Air Lines state enterprise, does not yet have experience in operating the Boeing 737-500. The company's fleet consists of domestically produced aircraft: Tu-134, Tu-154B, Yak-40, An-24 and An-26. Accordingly, there are no pilots trained for American equipment in Arkhangelsk. They will be prepared in parallel with the arrival of the Boeing 737 into the airline’s fleet. Mikhail KUKUSHKIN |
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