Aeroflot-Russian International Airlines is considering setting up a series of regional hubs in an attempt to break the dominance of Sheremetyevo Airport at Moscow in its network.
The widening of its domestic-flights network in Russia and the CIS are two major factors in Aeroflot's strategy to improve efficiency. Valery Okulov, its new acting general director (and son- in-law of Russian president Boris Yeltsin) says that the airline hopes to get away from the status of "the airline of a single airport".
Future hub locations under study include Nizhniy Novgorod and St Petersburg in the European part of Russia, Yekaterinburg in the Urals, Yakutsk in Siberia and Khabarovsk or Vladivostok in the far east. The airline intends to develop co-operation with local carriers in thsee locations, including joint technical-maintenance services and training. In the case of Nizhniy Novgorod, an industrial centre some 400km (250 miles) east of Moscow, the airline has decided to try to merge with the local operator.
In 1996, Aeroflot's overall passenger traffic grew by 9.2%, to 3.82 million people. Its traffic in the Baltic countries, the CIS and Russia grew by over 200%. It remains the largest Russian carrier, responsible for 18% of the total passenger traffic of Russian commercial operators. According to Okulov, the airline's turnover amounted to 7,441 billion roubles ($1.29 billion), resulting in a profit of 170 billion roubles.
In line with its aim of improving operational efficiency, Aeroflot has ambitious plans for renovating its fleet. It operates 115 aircraft of nine types (21 Ilyushin Il-62Ms, 18 Il-86s, 16 Il-76s and six Il-96-300s, two Boeing 767-300s, ten Airbus Industrie A310-300s, 12 Tupolev Tu-134s, 25 Tu-154Ms, four Tu-154Bs and one McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30). Okulov says that the number of types should be reduced to no more than five.
For shorter-range routes, the company has already decided to purchase ten Boeing 737-400s. The $400 million contract will be signed on 30 April. The first delivery is scheduled for April 1998, and the last 737 will be delivered 18 months after that. This is Aeroflot's first purchase of foreign aircraft without guarantees from the Russian Government.
The company is also considering leasing a second DC-10-30 freighter, to add to the success of its first DC-10 on cargo flights from Frankfurt to Tokyo and Seoul via Moscow. To further strengthen its cargo fleet, the carrier is expecting to receive delivery of its first Pratt & Whitney-powered Il-96T freighter from VASO of Voronezh this year. Two more Il-96Ts, and the first of 17 Il-96Ms on order, should be delivered in 1998.
Source: Flight International
