Russian flag-carrier Aeroflot is to introduce Boeing 747s into its fleet as a result of the fall-out from the collapse of rival Transaero.
The airline has provisionally agreed to lease four 747s as a part of a package negotiated with Sberbank’s leasing arm.
This package includes 10 Boeing 737-800s, which will enter service in 2016, says the federal air transport authority Rosaviatsia.
It has not identified the 747 variant involved, but Transaero operated several 747-400s including four from an Irish Sberbank leasing affiliate, according to Flightglobal’s Fleets Analyzer database.
Rosaviatsia adds that Aeroflot is discussing additional lease of aircraft owned by Russian banks VTB and VEB.
It puts the Transaero fleet at 106 aircraft. “Termination of operations means the airline fleet is not used for transport,” it states. Aeroflot is taking on additional capacity in order to fill part of the void left by Transaero's grounding on 26 October.
Over the weekend of 24-25 October, just before Transaero's operating certificate was withdrawn, several of its aircraft were flown from Moscow to a storage facility at Teruel in eastern Spain.
These aircraft included at least six 747-400s as well as 767-300ERs and around a dozen 737s.
Transaero had been undergoing a fleet modernisation and a number of new Airbus A320-family jets bound for the airline have been flown directly from the assembly line to storage.
This modernisation also included orders for four Boeing 747-8s and four Airbus A380s, as well as A320neo jets. Transaero was also in line to take Sukhoi Superjets and Irkut MC-21s, and was a tentative customer for the A330neo.
Over the first nine months of this year, Aeroflot has expanded its fleet with three Boeing 777-300ERs, six 737-800s and four Superjets, while removing five Ilyushin Il-96s. Its fleet at the end of September stood at 163, the carrier states, while the Aeroflot Group overall has 261.
(David Kaminski-Morrow - Flightglobal News)
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