Russia’s national carrier plans major expansion of its fleet

Aeroflot, Russia’s national airline, is now planning a massive expansion of its fleet of aircraft, with a number of new Western models to be introduced within the near future. Aeroflot is flying an increasing number of Boeing and Airbus planes, even though the carrier was once known to prefer Russian and Soviet built Tupolevs and Ilyushins. This trend is set to continue, with Aeroflot gearing up to purchase 44 Boeing and Airbus planes. The most important addition to the fleet will be 22 new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircrafts and another 22 Airbus 350 planes. Both of these will be ideally suited to transport passengers on long-haul routes. The new purchases will cost over $5.8 billion, but despite the seemingly expensive order, airline industry experts believe that Aeroflot is getting a good deal, with up to 17% in savings. It is likely that Aeroflot was able to secure such an advantageous deal after tough negotiations with both companies and—according to some analysts—because they successfully played the two airplane giants off each other.

Aeroflot will begin flying the first of these new planes by 2014. After the rather dark, Soviet era, when Aeroflot was looked upon with a degree of suspicion by westerners for poor service and stunningly lax security and safety standards, the airline is now experiencing a lucky streak, with improved performance and higher levels of customer satisfaction. It is now considered to be one of the top ten most successful airlines in the world and among the top twenty with the highest profit margins.

www.aeroflot.ru