Donavia Airlines’ AOC cancelled

Earlier, Donavia handed over its fleet to the merged Rossiya Airlines (Photo by Donavia)

The Federal Air Transport Agency (FATA) has cancelled the Air Operator’s Certificate of the Aeroflot subsidiary Donavia. As the FATA explained, the decision was taken based on an appropriate application filed by the carrier after its inclusion in the merged Rossiya Airlines (another Aeroflot subsidiary) and the handover of its entire fleet to the merged airline.

Donavia started flying under Rossiya’s designator code in late March 2016, at the beginning of the spring/summer schedule. The airline company told Russian Aviation Insider that the merged Rossiya branch was created in Rostov-on-Don (Donavia’s former base). The city’s airport is supposed to continue operating flights to Simferopol, Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Tel-Aviv within its summer schedule.

The merged Rossiya Airlines will operate under a single Air Operator’s Certificate. It will include the entire fleet of carriers united in the new structure. In addition to Rossiya and Donavia, this includes OrenAir (Orenburg Airlines, another Aeroflot’s subsidiary). The merged carrier will also take on lease the Russian lessors’ aircraft that were previously operated by Transaero. OrenAir has not yet applied for cancellation of its AOC.

According to the management of the merged Rossiya Airlines, the formation of which was finalized by the beginning of the summer schedule, the company will become Russia’s second busiest carrier in terms of passenger traffic volume. Rossiya Airlines is expected to carry over 9 million passengers in 2016.