S7 Airlines has announced plans to create a new low-cost carrier, with ticket sales opening in the spring of 2022 and the first flights commencing in July 2022. The airline’s fleet will consist exclusively of Airbus A320neos.
On Monday (August 2, 2021), the S7 Group, the largest private aviation holding company in Russia, announced the launch of a new low-cost carrier (LCC). The new airline plans on opening ticket sales next spring, with flights commencing in July 2022. The new carrier's fleet will consist exclusively of Airbus A320neos and a preliminary agreement for four aircraft has already been signed. During the first three years, the company plans on adding 6-8 aircraft annually, growing the fleet to 20 aircraft by 2024. The carrier’s route network will focus on direct cross-regional flights in central Russia.
In Monday’s announcement, S7 Group Shareholder, Tatyana Fileva, said,
“The creation of a new airline is a logical and consistent step for us. We see great potential in the cross-regional transportation segment which we cannot cover within the current S7 Airlines business model. But a carrier operating according to the low-cost business model can take this market share. If we look at the international experience, we can see that the route network of the European low-cost airlines is distributed between regions. In the Russian market, low-cost air transportation is available mainly in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation also highlighted the necessity to create another low-cost airline in central Russia in order to improve the accessibility of the regions.”
Based on current estimates, S7 expects the new airline to carry approximately one million passengers in its first year of operation, growing to 6-7 million passengers by 2024.
S7 Airlines is a member of the oneworld® global aviation alliance and operates from hubs at Moscow (Domodedovo) and Novosibirsk (Tolmachevo) in Siberia. The carrier operates regularly scheduled flights to the CIS countries, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. S7 Airlines operates the youngest fleet in Russia comprised of Airbus, Boeing and Embraer aircraft. The airline is a member of the S7 Group of companies which carried over 12.3 million passengers in 2020.
Source: S7 Airlines
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