Aeroflot plans to order 323 Russian planes - CEO
MOSCOW. Aug 26 (Interfax) - The Aeroflot Group plans to order 323 Russian planes, CEO Sergei Alexandrovsky said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"We plan to sign deals for 323 Russian aircraft in total, among them 73 Sukhoi Superjet and 210 MC-21 - the new-look import-free planes with Russian engines - and 40 Tu-214. These are very substantial volumes and will of course require of us additional resources," he said.
Alexandrovsky said the group was updating its strategy, but this had "already been fully synchronized with comprehensive program to develop the transport sector to 2030."
Commenting on the current situation with air transportation, he said that the company was receiving state support and diverting demand to alternative destinations.
"We now fly to 111 destinations, which is 18 more than in 2021. We have significantly increased our volumes to some destinations, for example, from Moscow to St. Petersburg the frequency has increased from 31 to 45, to Sochi from 15 to 25 daily, to Minvody from two to eight daily. There has been a significant increase for several other destinations," Alexandrovsky said.
He said state support had enabled the airline to keep prices for passenger transportation down. "And for Aeroflot, in 2022 we are seeing a decrease of up to 10% compared with 2021 and by 21% compared with 2019 which, in the current conditions, of course, is very much in demand among our citizens. And we are seeing a significant increase in load," he said.
He said passenger load for the Aeroflot Group's budget airline Pobeda was now 95%. "But I can say note that this year Aeroflot itself has also had a very high load in the summer months. Now it is somewhere between 91-95%, for Aeroflot this is a very high load factor," Alexandrovsky said.
Reports have said the Aeroflot Group carried 17.2 million passengers in H1 2022, down 7% year-on-year, including 14.7 million on domestic routes, down 8.5%, and 2.5 million on international routes, down 0.2%.