Ural Airlines takes delivery of another A321

The newly delivered A321 is the 12th aircraft of the type in Ural Airlines' fleet (Photo by Ural Airlines)

Ural Airlines has taken delivery of an Airbus A321 equipped with sharklet winglets. The aircraft, the 12th of the type in the operator’s fleet, features a single-class configuration with seating capacity for 215 passengers, the airline said in a statement.

According to the data from open sources, the aircraft’s tail number is  VP-BSY, and it made its first flight in October 2016. Its initial customer was TransAsia Airways, which ceased operations in one month after taking delivery of the aircraft.

Ural Airlines has received an A320 previously operated by this Taiwan carrier earlier this year.

With the newly acquired aircraft factored in, the Russian airline’s fleet has expanded by four aircraft so far this year, reaching the total of 42. The previous delivery took place in April, it was an A320 previously operated by S7 Airlines.

Ural Airlines launched its ongoing fleet renovation program in 2006.  Last year the airline led Russian carriers in terms of the total flight time of its A320 family fleet. Fleet expansion efforts have resulted in double-digit growth of traffic numbers so far this year. In March traffic surged 22% following 27.4% in February and 35.1% in January, year-on-year. For the whole year of 2016 the airline carried 6.467 million passengers, up 18.8% on the previous year.