Customers line up, but questions remain over the true identity of Russian Airlines (474 words)

Published: 9/13/2001

KAPO has signed an agreement to sell five Tu-214s to Moscow-based start-up Russian Airlines, according to the plant's General Director, Nail Khairullin. Khairuloin says that this will be the first aircraft to be serially produced at the plant, although given that KAPO is believed to have a number of airframes, this is ambiguous, as it seems unlikely at this point to be aircraft from scratch. The market is also uncertain as to the origins of KAPO's customer, Russian Airlines. KAPO says that, at present, the airline is unregistered, but that the registration process is in hand. There is no clear information as to who controls the business and this has led to speculation that the airline may be a construct of KAPO itself, in order to generate demand. Other reports have suggested that it may be a reincarnation of one of the several Moscow-based airlines that have recently lost licences as a result of the GSGA clamp down. The deal with Russian Airlines was preceded by the announcement that the plant is in discussion with Ural Airlines, based in Yekaterinburg, for between 3-6 aircraft. According to Vladimir Kovalev, the current operator, Dalavia, Deputy General Director of KAPO, has also signed an agreement to acquire a further six aircraft through a leasing arrangement with the Financial Leasing Company (FLK). The airline claims that the further acquisition has been prompted by significant improvements made both in costs and comfort on its Khabarovsk -Moscow route, where the aircraft replaced the fuel inefficient Il-62 in July this year. According to Dalavia, the load factors on the aircraft running at 90% have allowed it to generate sufficient cash flow to consider the leasing approach. Kovalev confirmed the reports of a memorandum of understanding between it and London-based Sirocco International (controlled by Kato Aromatic), Tupolev, the Tatarastan government and Aviaexport for the development of a Rolls-Royce powered Tu-214, scheduled to make its first flight before the end of 2002. By the end of September, KAPO expects to sign a fuller agreement with Sirocco over the specific funding of the project. Sirocco has confirmed that discussions are underway, but stresses that these are in the early stages. Sirocco's involvement with the Tu-214 comes after reports of considerable tension between the new management at Aviastar and New Community over the Sirocco/Kato Aromatic contract for the Tu-204 that the incoming management have made clear that it sees as being unprofitable. However, according to Tom Smith, President of Sirocco International, discussions over the last few weeks between the two parties have examined the cause of the disputes and the two sides are close to an agreement that, in Smith's words, will reflect the fact that “a lot has happened “ in Russian aviation in the last five years.

Article ID: 2758