URAL AIRLINES / A321NEO / VP-BOP

Alain Charpentier - TLS

First Airbus A321neo for Ural Airlines

The aircraft is the first LEAP-powered A321neo to enter service in both Russia and the CIS (Ural Airlines)

Ural Airlines (U6), Russia’s fifth largest carrier, has introduced its first Airbus A321neo, operating a flight on the key route from its Yekaterinburg airport base to Moscow on November 2nd.

The aircraft, the first LEAP-powered A321neo to enter service in both Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), is on an operating lease from US lessor GECAS. Sporting tail number VP-BOP, it is configured to accommodate 236 passengers in a full-economy layout and is the third re-engined narrow-body A320neo family aircraft in the carrier’s fleet.

The Russian operator has a current in-service fleet of 47 aircraft, all from the Airbus A320 family, including five A319s, 26 A320s and 16 A321s, with each one powered by CFM International engines.

U6 served 7.4 million passengers in the first six months of this year, a 5.8 per cent year-on-year improvement. The airline’s flight geography now includes more than 200 destinations.

With its aim to operate a 70-strong fleet by 2025, the carrier also holds a firm order for 10 Boeing 737 MAX-8s and an option for a further four of the currently grounded aircraft. In the original schedule, the first deliveries were due to occur in October of this year and the airline was expecting to have two MAXs in its fleet before the end of 2019.

Ural Airlines opens Moscow – London bookings from late-Dec 2019

Ton Jochems - AYT

By Jim Liu
Ural Airlines in last week’s schedule update modified planned Moscow – London service, scheduled to commence on 20DEC19. The airline now plans to operate Moscow Domodedovo – London Stansted route, instead of previously planned Moscow Zhukovsky – London Stansted.

Airbus A320 aircraft operates this route 4 times weekly, and reservation for this route opened last Friday (15OCT19).

U6745 DME1335 – 1430STN 320 x246
U6746 STN1530 – 2210DME 320 x246

Russia’s only all-Airbus operator signs for 14 Boeing 737MAXs

Value of the deal constitutes 240 per cent of Ural Airlines’ book asset value (Wikimedia)

Ural Airlines, Russia’s fifth largest carrier, has agreed a game-changing deal for the lease of 14 new Boeing 737MAX-8 aircraft. The airline currently operates an all-Airbus fleet and has never purchased or leased a new aircraft before.

The US$739 million deal – some 240 per cent of the airline’s book asset value – is a 12-year agreement, including preferred extension options, with SB Leasing Ireland, the Dublin-based subsidiary of Russia’s biggest state-owned finance house Sberbank. Deliveries of the aircraft are scheduled between October 2019 and May 2022.

The contract also marks Boeing’s second notable agreement with a Russian airline this year involving its newest narrow-bodies, after UTair’s May order for 30 B737MAXs, with deliveries also set to begin in 2019. Previously, S7 Airlines became Boeing’s first Russian customer for the re-engined narrow-body.

Ural Airlines currently operates a fleet of 45 Airbus A320-family aircraft (seven А319s, 24 А320s and 14 А321s), a position for which it has been heralded by Airbus as Russia’s leading operator of the type for two consecutive years, with an average daily utilisation rate of 12.71 hours per unit in 2017.



The airline had been considering both the Airbus A320neo (including the A321LR version) and the Boeing 737NG/737MAX for its fleet expansion plans. The airline has also declared that it is considering launching a Boeing 737 maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) facililty at its in-house engineering centre.

by ES in Air Transport

Ural Airlines in talks over A321neo lease

The problems of VIM Airlines (NN, Moscow Domodedovo) are mounting, with Russia's TASS news agency reporting that two of its aircraft have been seized at international airports. Analysis of FlightRadar24 ADS-B data shows that B777-200(ER) VP-BMR (msn 7192) has been in Antalya, Turkey and B777-300 VP-BSF (msn 29067) in Liège, Belgium since September 25.
"It is clear now the airline will not be able to carry passengers of charter flights using its resources. Its jets are under attachment due to debts in Antalya and Dalaman airports of the Republic of Turkey and in Liege airport," said Alexander Neradko from Russia's aviation agency (Rosaviatsia). He added that VIM's owner, Rashid Mursekaev, was quitting the aviation business and wanted to sell the airline for one ruble.
News of the seized aircraft comes hot on the heels of a criminal proceeding which has been brought against VIM by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (SLDKOM), which alleges that the airline has been engaged in large scale fraud. SLDKOM says that VIM has continued to sell tickets, even though they are aware that they cannot pay their fuel costs and transport passengers, thus deceitfully earning RUB1 million (USD17,000).

All of VIM's flights from and to Domodedovo airport have been cancelled, with other carriers scrambling to carry passengers holding VIM tickets. Rosaviatsia has set aside RUB200 million (USD3.45 million) to compensate airlines who pick up VIM's slack, while a number of VIM aircraft have been ferried to Moscow Vnukovo for use in repatriating the airline's 150,000 stranded passengers. According to ch-aviation analysis of FlightRadar24 ADS-B data, the VIM fleet currently actively operating from/to Vnukovo includes two A319-100s, one A330-200, two B757-200s, one B767-300(ER), four B777-200(ER)s and one B777-300(ER). Another VIM B777-200(ER) is still actively operating Hajj charters on behalf of its Saudi customer flynas (XY, Riyadh).

Although facing imminent closure, VIM's media team has been anxiously issuing press releases to reassure passengers. The airline also advised that it has paid RUB60 million (USD1 million) towards staff wages to bring it up to date as at July 2017. Members of VIM management will reportedly not be paid until all subordinate staff wages have been cleared.

Ural Airlines started operations on six new routes over the past two weeks, spread across three of its Russian base

The longest sector of the six services was on the airport pair from Moscow Domodedovo (DME) to Lisbon (LIS), at 3,911 kilometres, while the shortest was the 2,116-kilometre link from St. Petersburg (LED) to Rimini (RMI) in Italy. The average weekly frequency of the six new routes is 1.67. Four of the six routes are already served from some of the airline’s other Russian bases – Batumi and Barcelona are both served from Moscow Domodedovo; Larnaca is served from Krasnodar, Ekaterinburg and Moscow Domodedovo; Rimini is served from Krasnodar, Samara and Moscow Domodedovo. However, flights to both Kemerovo and Lisbon are the airline’s first operations to the respective cities 

• the world.

Launched	From	To	Aircraft (WF)	Competition (WF)
20 Apr	Ekaterinburg (SVX)	Batumi (BUS)	A32S (2)
27 Apr	St. Petersburg (LED)	Kemerovo (KEJ)	A320 (2)
		Larnaca (LCA)	A321 (3)	Aeroflot (4)
30 Apr		Barcelona (BCN)	A321 (1)	Vueling (4), Aeroflot (1)
		Rimini (RMI)	A321 (1)
1 May	Moscow Domodedovo (DME)	Lisbon (LIS)	A319 (1)	TAP Portugal (5)
Source: OAG Schedules Analyser for w/c 3 May 2016.

Aenna

Six new A320s for Russia's Ural Airlines to arrive from 2014 on

Ural Airlines is to take delivery of six new A320-200 aircraft from Airbus Industrie in 2014 as part of the Russian carrier's fleet renewal plans. According to aero.de, the jets will be leased and not acquired outright. Ural Airlines is currently an exclusive Airbus operator with two A319-100, eighteen A320-200s and ten A321-200s.
Photo:Ton Jochems - AYT

URAL AIRLINES - A321-200, VQ-BKG

Ton Jochems - AYT

URAL AIRLINES - A321-200, VQ-BKG

Pmb - BCN

URAL AIRLINES - A320-200, VQ-BFV

PMB - BCN