Russia’s S7 Airlines brings in a 20th Airbus A320neo

Fresh from Toulouse to the heart of Siberia - A320neo joins S7 Arlines' 100-strong fleet (S7)

Russia’s S7 Airlines has taken delivery of an additional A320neo, the 24th of the re-engined narrow-body Airbus aircraft family in its fleet. With the registration VP-BTB, it arrived at S7’s Novosibirsk Tolmachevo base straight from the European manufacturer’s Toulouse facility earlier this week, joining 19 A320neos and four A321neos. With the newly arrived aircraft, S7’s fleet total – consisting of Airbus, Boeing and Embraer models – has now reached 101 units.

S7 Airlines, which is ranked as Russia’s second largest operator after flag carrier Aeroflot, previously announced that it was expecting to receive 10 A320neos this year.

An amalgamation of the two carriers Sibir and Globus, which merged into a single business entity last December, S7 Airlines transported 1.368 million passengers in January, a 16.8 per cent improvement on the same month of last year, the airline reports. Of the January traffic total, 994,080 passengers travelled domestically (up by 20.3 per cent year-on-year), and the remaining 374,114 flew on international services (up by 8.4 per cent).

“The January operational results reflect the seasonality of a number of routes across S7 Airlines’ network. The popularity of destinations serving mountain ski resorts, both in Russia and Europe, is on the rise with, typically, the airline’s passengers travelling to Salzburg, Innsbruck, Turin, Verona and Milan, our newest offering, during the winter holiday season. Similarly, Sochi and Mineralnye Vody have been popular domestic destinations,” comments Igor Veretennikov, S7 Group’s commercial director.