Russia’s Red Wings is revealed as customer for Bombardier CS300s

The CSeries aircraft will be formally registered with Red Wings, but will be jointly operated with partner airline Nordavia (Bombardier)

Russia’s Red Wings Airlines has placed an order for the operational leases of six Bombardier CS300 narrowbody aircraft. All six are scheduled for delivery in 2019, Nikolay Dadonov, Red Wings’ adviser to the general director, told ATO.ru, Russian Aviation Insider’s sister publication, at the recent ATO Aviation Financing Russia & CIS conference in Moscow.

The airline, owned by lessor Ilyushin Finance Co (IFC), a 48 per cent share of which is held by state-run United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), is quick to emphasise that the CS300 does not compete with its own smaller Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ100) regional jet, or with the advanced, bigger MC-21 airliner.

The Canada-made Bombardier aircraft will be formally registered in the fleet of Moscow-based Red Wings, but will be shared within a joint network project with partner airline, Arkhangelsk-headquartered Nordavia. The two airlines formed an alliance in October 2017 and have since been developing synergies. A Red Wings spokesman explained that the CS300 is a good fit for that alliance’s proposed regional route network. The choice of the type was also explained by its favourable maintenance requirements and operational efficiencies.

The six aircraft, initially part of IFC’s portfolio, were later ceded to Russian State Transport Leasing Company (GTLK), which now acts as a lessor for the deal, Dadonov explained. IFC has a total of 20 CS300s on order and, at last year’s Paris Air Show, IFC confirmed it had found a customer for six of these aircraft, with deliveries set for 2019 and 2020.

Red Wings currently operates a fleet of six Russia-made Tupolev Tu-204s and seven Airbus A320-family aircraft, with the number of the latter expected to rise to 12 this summer. Nordavia’s fleet consists of nine ageing Boeing 737-500s, which the airline expects to phase out within two years. It hopes to replace them with the Boeing 737NG, the first of which will enter service with the operator before the end of this year.