Ural Airlines takes delivery of another A321

The carrier’s fifth A320-family delivery this year has already performed its first revenue flight (Ural Airlines)

Russian carrier Ural Airlines has received another Airbus narrowbody. The new addition is an A321 (VP-BSW), the most capacious version of the A320 family, the company reports.

The aircraft has a single-class 215-seat layout. It was ferried to the carrier’s base airport Koltsovo in Yekaterinburg from Taiwan. The airliner has already entered revenue service, with the first scheduled flight performed from Yekaterinburg to Moscow’s Domodedovo.

As open sources suggest, the aircraft was built in 2016 and was initially intended for Taiwanese carrier TransAsia Airways, which ceased operations last fall.

Ural Airlines operates two more ex-TransAsia aircraft: an A320 and an A321 (the latter was delivered to the carrier in early 2017). Both A321s are so far the only aircraft in the airline’s fleet to be sharklet-equipped.

VP-BSW became the 13th A321 in the carrier’s fleet, which also includes 23 A320s and seven A319s.

Last year Ural Airlines demonstrated the highest A320 family utilization rate among the Russian carriers. Since the beginning of 2017, the airline has added five aircraft of the family (including VP-BSW) to its fleet, although earlier plans called for taking only four airliners this year. The carrier wants to bring its fleet up to 50 airplanes by 2020.

Currently Russia’s fifth-largest carrier by traffic, Ural Airlines continues to report a vigorous growth in passenger numbers. The figure went up by 29% year-on-year to 2.54 million in January through May. The seat load factor hit 77.3% (up 8%).