Yamal Airlines gets ex-Aeroflot A321

The 12.9-year-old airliner has already been painted in the new customer's livery (Ercan Karakas / Wikimedia)

An Airbus A321 formerly operated by Russia’s largest carrier Aeroflot will now fly for another of the country’s operators, Yamal Airlines.

The airplane, VP-BWO (s.n. 2337), was ferried to the new customer from Maastricht, where it had had a new paint job. The airliner has already been spotted in the new livery, and several photographs of it have been uploaded to the Internet.

Aeroflot had been planing to part with the 12.9-year-old airframe since November 2015 as part of the carrier’s fleet renewal schedule. The average age of the airline’s fleet currently stands at 4.2 years.

According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, Yamal had three more A321s, eight A320s, and two Boeing 737-400s as of October 2017, as well as 10 Bombardier CRJ200LRs, a number of extended-range Sukhoi Superjet 100s (SSJ100LR), and a single Bombardier Challenger 850 business jet.

The carrier earlier told Russian Aviation Insider about its plans to phase out the severely obsolete 737 Classics following the expiration of their lease terms. The airline’s strategy for the future is centered around SSJ100s, A320/321s, and CRJ200LRs.