Aeroflot ! SU ! AFL

Aeroflot postpones A320 deliveries but plans to lease MD-11s
By David Kaminski-Morrow

Aeroflot is postponing deliveries of five Airbus A320-family aircraft, following its recent examination of capacity requirements.

The Russian flag carrier is also to lease three Boeing MD-11s from Boeing Capital, having already opted to withdraw its long-haul Ilyushin Il-86 fleet.

The carrier will push back delivery of two A320s, scheduled to arrive in the first quarter of 2010, to the first quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012.

Aeroflot will also delay delivery of three A321s by up to two years. The aircraft, which would have arrived in the third quarter of 2010, have been put back to the first and third quarters of 2012.

Aeroflot took delivery of its sixth A330-300 last Thursday on lease from AerCap. Aircraft is powered by Trent 772s and is painted in SkyTeam livery. Four more are expected through April.

La Russie va créer un géant de l'aviation à partir d'Aeroflot

MOSCOU (Reuters) - La Russie a renoncé à son projet de créer une deuxième compagnie aérienne nationale et va regrouper divers actifs avec le transporteur Aeroflot, l'ancien monopole du transport aérien à l'époque de l'Union soviétique.
Le gouvernement annonce que les six compagnies qui devaient à l'origine être regroupées dans la compagnie publique RosAvia vont être privatisées cette année en vue d'être incorporées dans Aeroflot.
Fondé en 1923 à l'époque de l'Union soviétique, le transporteur a depuis été semi-privatisé. Il a récupéré une partie de la flotte après l'effondrement du régime soviétique en 1991 mais il a dû affronter des centaines de concurrents assurant les liaisons régionales pour couvrir l'ensemble du territoire russe, le plus vaste au monde.
Certaines de ces compagnies sont restées dans le giron de l'Etat tandis que d'autres ont été privatisées. Beaucoup ont été obligées de mettre la clef sous la porte en raison de la crise du transport aérien.
Le Kremlin avait pour projet à l'origine de regrouper six transporteurs en faillite au sein de l'entreprise publique Russian Technologies et de créer une filiale RosAvia rassemblant Rossi, KavMinVody, Vladivostokavia, Orenburg, Saratov et Sakhalin Airlines.
Mais Russian Technologies éprouve des difficultés à faire face aux pertes subies par plusieurs de ses actifs dont AvtoVAZ, ce qui a conduit à l'abandon du projet RosAvia.
Le site internet du gouvernement rapporte que le ministre des Transports Igor Levitine a déclaré au Premier ministre Vladimir Poutine que les six sociétés seraient privatisées et fusionnées avec Aeroflot.
"Je suis prêt à donner mon accord mais je voudrais vous poser une question. Cette décision ne serait-elle pas contraire à la loi anti-monopole?", a demandé le Premier ministre au ministre des Transports.
Celui-ci a répondu que l'opération ferait monter la part d'Aeroflot dans le trafic de passagers à une fourchette comprise entre 30 et 35%, contre 15% aujourd'hui, ce qui serait conforme à la législation.
"Bien. La décision est prise. Je suis d'accord avec votre décision. Vous pouvez commencer à travailler", a répondu Vladimir Poutine.

The first delivery of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional jet to Aeroflot is finally approaching, inaugurating a period when the Russian flag carrier will ramp up its commitment to domestically produced aircraft.
The move is driven largely by political pressure from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and will not directly come at the expense of Aeroflot's commitment to Airbus and Boeing airliners, which Aeroflot also is buying. Putin recently chastised Russia's largest state-controlled carrier for failing to support local industry.
In response, Aeroflot management sent a letter to Putin saying that by 2016 Aeroflot intends to replenish its fleet with 40 Superjet 100s and 11 Antonov An-148 regional jets, as well as 25 An-140 turboprops. Perhaps more importantly, Aeroflot also commited to take 50 MS-21 narrowbodies in the 2016-2020 period, thereby supporting United Aircraft Corp.’s next commercial flagship program.
Aeroflot is justifying the fleet purchases as a result of its own demand and takeover of six smaller Russian airlines. Aeroflot has already committed to acquire 30 Superjets, with 15 on option. Rossiya Airlines operates four An-148s and has two more to be delivered with an additional six on option, while VladAvia expects delivery of six An-148s.
The plan by Aeroflot to acquire 25 An-140s surprised some in the industry because of the size of the order for 52-seat turboprops. Moreover, industry officials doubt the Russian aerospace industry will be able to produce that many An-140s by 2016, given that the Aviakor plant in Samara has managed to assemble only four aircraft since 2006.
Meanwhile, the new MS-21 long-range narrowbody transport is set to enter the market in 2016. The 150-seat MS-21-200, the first model that will be available, recently passed preliminary design review, and first flight is tentatively scheduled for 2014.
So it is the Superjet that will hit the market first, now expected by year-end, although Aeroflot has yet to add it to its official schedule, given repeated program delays.
The Superjet program recently suffered another delay when the delivery of the first two production-standard PowerJet SaM146 engines built by the Snecma/NPO Saturn joint venture slipped from July to August. Those have now been dispatched to the final assembly site at Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Russian Far East.
According to Saturn Managing Director Ilya Fyodorov, by the end of the year PowerJet will manufacture 13 production-standard turbofans, 12 intended to be installed on the Superjet 100 and one as a spare. Next year, the joint venture plans to assemble 36-50 engines.
Meanwhile three prototype aircraft are participating in certification trials, and Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co. (SCAC) representatives report that some 70% of the entire flight test program has been completed. Recently the aircraft passed hot-and-high tests at the high-altitude airfield in Gumry, Armenia.
In late August, the third prototype of Sukhoi Superjet 100 SN 950004 landed at Italy’s Turin Caselle Airport for noise level checks and high-intensity radiated field tests. The program will take about a month, SCAC’s representative says. Electromagnetic interference tests also were on the agenda.

Aeroflot réclame 100 M USD à Boeing pour défaut de livraison de B-787
MOSCOU, 27 oct 2010 (AFP) La première compagnie aérienne russe Aeroflot va réclamer au constructeur américain Boeing plus de 100 millions de dollars d'amende pour non-respect des délais de livraison d'avions Boeing-787, a annoncé mercredi Chamil Kourmachov, directeur général adjoint d'Aeroflot.

http://www.air-cosmos.com/news/depeches-afp/aeroflot-reclame-100-m-usd-a-boeing-pour-defaut-de-livraison-de-b-787.html

Russia’s Aeroflot Airlines (SU) signed an agreement with Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport (SVO) to release airport terminals D, E and F for the carrier, its sister companies and SkyTeam partners. Russia’s Kommersant newspaper said SU and partners will occupy the terminals from summer 2014.

Currently, other airlines—including SAS, Finnair, AirBaltic, Air Astana and LOT Polish Airlines—also use the terminals, and say they could move to a different airport as the other terminals are unsuitable for them.

Industry experts say this decision could weaken Transaero Airline (UN), SU’s main competitor. Domodedovo-based (DME) UN operates several flights using widebody aircraft from SVO. UN this year started flights from Moscow Vnukovo Airport (ATW Daily News, Feb. 22).