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JSC "Aeroflot - Russian Airlines" (Template:Lang-ru) (MCX: AFLT MCX: AFLT), or Aeroflot (Template:Lang-ru) as the airline is commonly known, is the Russian flag carrier and the largest airline in Russia. Based at Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport it operates domestic and international passenger services to 93 cities in 47 countries.

During the Soviet era, Aeroflot was the Soviet national airline and the largest airline in the world. Since the dissolution of the USSR, Aeroflot has been transformed from a State-owned bureaucracy into a smaller semi-privatised airline which ranks amongst the most profitable in the world.

In recent years Aeroflot has embarked on a fleet modernisation program, extensive route restructuring, and an image overhaul, in order to bring the airline up to world standards. These efforts culminated in the entry of the airline into SkyTeam on 14 April 2006.

History

In 1921, shortly after the end of the Russian Civil War, the new government established the Chief Administration of the Civil Air Fleet to oversee new air transport projects. One of its first acts was to help found Deutsch-Russische Luftverkehrs (Deruluft), a joint German-Russian venture to provide air transport from Russia to the West. Domestic air service began around the same time, when the Dobrolyot society was established on 9 February 1923. It started operations on 15 July 1923 between Moscow and Nizhni Novgorod. On 25 February 1932 all civil aviation activities were consolidated under the name of Grazhdanskiy Vozdushnyy Flot (Civil Air Fleet), known simply as Aeroflot. International flights started in 1937; before that date they had been carried out by Deruluft.

By the end of the 1930s Aeroflot had become the world's largest airline, employing more than 400,000 people and operating around 4,000 aircraft. It became the first airline in the world to operate sustained regular jet services on 15 September 1956 with the Tupolev Tu-104.

During the Soviet era Aeroflot was synonymous with Russian civil aviation. One of the rare examples of Soviet commercial advertisement was Aeroflot's slogan, "Fly on the planes of Aeroflot!"("Летайте самолетами Аэрофлота!"). The irony was that Aeroflot had no competitors and it was virtually impossible for an average Soviet citizen to fly on a non-Aeroflot plane. The advertisement was intended to entice people into using Aeroflot instead of cheaper though much slower long-distance trains.

In January 1971 the Aeroflot Central Administration of International Air Traffic was established within the framework of IATA, and became the industry's sole enterprise authorised to operate international flights. Abroad, the airline was known as Aeroflot Soviet Airlines. In 1976 Aeroflot carried its 100 millionth passenger. Its flights were mainly concentrated around the Soviet Union, but the airline also had an international network covering five continents: North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The network included countries such as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and People's Republic of China. Since the 1970s some transatlantic flights were flown using Shannon Airport in Ireland as an intermediate stop, as it was the westernmost non-NATO airport in Europe.

Aeroflot also performed myriad other functions, it provided Aeromedical, crop-dusting, heavy lifting for the Soviet Space Agency (see Soviet Space Program), offshore oil platform support, exploration for natural resources, support for construction projects, transport of military troops and supplies (as an adjunct to the Soviet Air Force), atmospheric research, remote area patrol, but to name a few. It operated hundreds of helicopters and cargo aircraft in addition to civil airliners. It also operated the Soviet equivalent of Air Force One and other VIP transports of government and communist party officials. Aeroflot joined IATA in 1989.

Aeroflot service to and from the United States was interrupted from September 15, 1983 until August 2, 1990 following an executive order by U.S. President Ronald Reagan revoking Aeroflot's license to operate flights into and out of the United States. (See Korean Air Flight 007 for more information). At the start of the 1990s Aeroflot reorganised again giving more autonomy to territorial divisions.

In 1992 it was divided into more than 300 regional airlines. International routes were operated separately as Aeroflot - Russian International Airlines (ARIA). Some airline companies which were created from the old Aeroflot are now flag carriers of the newly independent countries of the CIS — e.g., Uzbekistan Airways. Smaller regional airlines which emerged out of the old Aeroflot — sometimes just one-plane operations — were sometimes referred to as Babyflots.

In 1994 Aeroflot was registered as a joint stock company and the government sold off 49% of its stake to Aeroflot employees. There have been no fatal accidents since the crash of an Airbus A310-304, Flight 593 on 23 March 1994, with its efforts to improve its safety record since then.

During the 1990s Aeroflot was primarily focused on international flights from Moscow. However, by the end of the decade Aeroflot started an expansion in the domestic market. In 2000 the company name was changed to Aeroflot — Russian Airlines to reflect the change in the company's strategy.

Recent developments

Aeroflot has been working towards redefining itself as a safe and reliable airline, hiring British consultants for rebranding at the beginning of the 2000s. A new livery and uniforms for flight attendants were designed and a promotional campaign launched in 2003.

Plans were afoot to get rid of the old Soviet-era logo complete with hammer and sickle, which some people in the West treat as a reminder of the old Soviet era. However, a customer survey showed that this was the most recognizable symbol of the company, and it was decided to keep it.

Aeroflot has also upgraded its fleet of western-built aircraft. It has a total of 24 A320/A319 jet planes for short-haul flights in Europe and 11 Boeing 767 planes for long-haul routes. The total number of planes is 93. It carried 5.9 million passengers in 2003.

In the spring of 2004 the airline started an aggressive expansion on the domestic market aiming to gain 30% share by 2010 (as of 2006 it holds approximately 9%). The first task was to outperform one of its major rivals S7 Airlines, the leader in the Russian domestic market. On July 29 2004 the company adopted a new corporate slogan: "Sincerely Yours. Aeroflot".

On April 14 2006 Aeroflot became the first air carrier in the former Soviet Union to join a global alliance (SkyTeam; another option was entry into Star Alliance). The airline will also get its own terminal at Sheremetyevo International Airport known as Sheremetyevo terminal 3 which will be finished by November 2007.

The company has announced its plan to increase cargo operations. It registered the "Aeroflot Cargo" trademark in 2004.

The airline is owned (as of March 2007) by the Russian Government via Rosimushchestvo (51.17%), National Reserve Corporation (27%) and employees and others (19%) and has 14,900 employees.

In 2006 Aeroflot carried 7,290,000 passengers and 145,300 tons of mail and cargo to 89 destinations in 47 countries.

In May 2007, Aeroflot offered a bid to buy the Serbian airline Jat Airways from the Serbian government. The government has been searching for many years for ways to privatize the Serbian airline, and to this date Aeroflot's bid for Jat is the largest one yet. Aeroflot says that they would plan to invest up to $450 million USD on Jat, over half of the money would be going to purchasing newer short-haul aircraft for the aging fleet. Air India is the only airline that is also in the race for bidding to purchase Jat.

Accordingly, in the past couple of years, Aeroflot has seen a significant financial improvement, both seen in its earning and number of passengers carried. The net profit of the company reached $309.4 million (RUB 7.98 billion) in 2006, a 32.3% increase from 2005 earnings of only $2.34 billion (RUB6.03 billion). The revenue for the same 2005-2006 period rose by 13.5% to reach $2.77 billion with a 8.7% gain in passenger numbers.

Destinations

Aeroflot operates most of its flights from Sheremetyevo airport, but is planning to increase its presence in Saint Petersburg, Pulkovo Airport. On June 1st, 2007, Aeroflot introduced flights to Munich, Berlin and Hamburg, and said it would add flights to North America and Japan starting next year. The airline dropped most of its flights to Germany out of Pulkovo after a few weeks of operation.

Fleet

Passenger

The Aeroflot fleet includes the following aircraft as of September 2007:

Aeroflot's Western-made fleet is young, whereas most of the Russian jets (except for Il-96s) are due to retire between 2008 and 2010. Aeroflot used to operate but later returned their 737s, A310s, and 777s.

Although there are a large amount of other Soviet aircraft in Aeroflot colors, they operate for other companies. As of 2007 Aeroflot operates Il-86 retired planes during summer rushes (e.g. night flight to Yerevan).

As of February 2007, the average age of the Aeroflot fleet was 6.7 years.

Previously operated

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During the Soviet era, almost all of Aeroflot's airliners were built by Soviet aircraft manufacturers. Virtually all civilian aircraft (and also some military) flying in the Soviet Union were considered as Aeroflot planes. This meant that Aeroflot was the airline with most planes in its fleet, since everything from small planes used to cropdusting fields to Ilyushin 62 with over 200 seats wore the Aeroflot brand.

During the 1940s and the early 1950s, the main aircraft of the Aeroflot fleet was a licensed version of the Douglas DC-3. Soviet-made, modified versions of this airliner were named the PS-84 and the Lisunov Li-2. The first such aircraft to be produced in the Soviet Union was completed in 1939.

Later, the Li-2 aircraft were replaced by the Ilyushin Il-12 (which entered service in 1947) and the Ilyushin Il-14 (which entered service in 1954). Aeroflot also operated large numbers of the Antonov An-2 STOL bi-plane (first flying in 1947), in both passenger and cargo roles. The An-2 remained in Aeroflot service until the 1980s.

On September 15 1956 Aeroflot began to operate Tupolev Tu-104s, the USSR's first jet airliner in regular service. The first passenger-carrying flight of this aircraft was from Moscow to Irkutsk, Russia. The first international route served by the Tu-104 was Moscow - Prague, Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia).

The Tupolev Tu-114, originally used to transport Soviet leaders, came into service in 1961 on the Moscow (Vnukovo International Airport) - Khabarovsk, Russia route. It also served international routes such as Moscow - Tokyo, Japan and Moscow - Havana, Cuba, the airline's longest non-stop route at that time.

In 1962 Aeroflot began operating the Tupolev Tu-124, the smaller version of the Tu-104, on regional routes. These aircraft were later replaced by the Tupolev Tu-134, which entered service in 1967. Modern modifications of the Tu-134 still make up much of the Russian regional fleet today.

The first Ilyushin Il-62 long-range four-engined airliner entered service with Aeroflot in 1967, with an inaugural flight from Moscow to Montreal on September 15 of that year.

In 1972 the first Tupolev Tu-154 began regular flights. This jet aircraft is probably the most popular Russian airliner, with over 1000 manufactured. The latest modification, Tu-154M, is still in service. These aircraft serve most of the Russian domestic flights.

On November 1 1977 Aeroflot started to use the Tupolev Tu-144, the world's first civil supersonic aircraft, on its regular route from Moscow (Domodedovo International Airport) to Alma-Ata (now Almaty, Kazakhstan). The Tu-144 was suspended from passenger service in 1978, having officially made a total of 55 regular flights.

In 1980 the Ilyushin Il-86, the first Russian-made wide-body aeroplane, joined the fleet, reaching a total of 11 aircraft. These were phased out by the end of 2006.

The first Western-made aircraft to be used by Aeroflot, the Airbus A310, was acquired in 1992. The company also became a Boeing customer, acquiring new Boeing 767 jet aircraft in 1994. Since then Aeroflot has also operated Boeing 737s, Airbus A320s, and the cargo version of the Douglas DC-10s.

In 1998 Aeroflot leased 2 Boeing 777s. Both of them have already been returned.

Fleet expansion

In 1993 Aeroflot started to operate the Ilyushin Il-96-300 aircraft on the Moscow - New York route. The company now flies 6 aircraft of the type - about one half of all Il-96s in commercial service worldwide - and promised to buy 6 more if the Russian State allowing it not to pay import duty on Western-built aircraft. Industry experts claim the company is trying to terminate the deal with Ilyushin as operating the Il-96 is not cost-effective.

In 2006 it leased 3 used Boeing 767-300ER from ILFC for 5 years. The first two aircraft were delivered in November 2006 and January 2007, the third one is due in March 2007. The company had previously leased 2 Boeing 767-300ER from ILFC.

As of 2007, Aeroflot is in the midst of an overhaul of its fleet structure. The ageing Tupolev 134s and Tupolev 154s used on the short- and mid-haul routes are being phased out - the former to be replaced by the as-yet-nonexistent Sukhoi Superjet 100 by January, 1, 2008, the latter by Airbus 319/320/321 family by 2010.

For long-haul routes the company has been evaluating the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350 as a replacement for the Boeing 767, strongly leaning towards the Dreamliner as it will be ready to fly earlier than its Airbus counterpart. Aeroflot reserved production slots for 22 Boeing 787's to be delivered in 2008-2010.

Matters came to a head in September 2006 as Aeroflot's Board of Directors convened to vote on the Boeing contract. Unfortunately for Boeing, this coincided with the USA imposing sanctions on various Russian companies (including a major aircraft maker, Sukhoi) for allegedly supplying Iran in violation of the US's Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000 and with the Russian state-owned Vneshtorgbank buying 5% of the stock in EADS, the corporation behind Airbus. The State's representatives on the board abstained from the vote and another round of lobbying ensued, with various Russian news sources reporting Aeroflot's efforts to placate the State by offering to order both 22 Boeing 787s and 22 Airbus 350s, effectively doubling its long-range fleet. Banker Alexander Lebedev, the man behind National Reserve Corporation, reached a deal with Boeing to prolong the deadline, using his corporation's money.

• On March 22, 2007, Aeroflot signed a protocol with Airbus for the delivery of 22 Airbus 350-800/900 XWB aircraft starting in 2015
• Ten Airbus A330-200 aircraft have also been ordered to arrive on operating leases from the end of 2008 to provide interim capacity.

However, several months later - and mere days after Aeroflot's main domestic competitor, S7 Airlines, became the 787's launch customer in Russia, on June 9, 2007 Aeroflot and Boeing signed a deal for the 22 Dreamliners on the sidelines of St Petersburg International Economic Forum, with deliveries starting in 2014 . Aeroflot's CEO Okulov confirmed that the existing Airbus order "would not be affected".

Aeroflot Bonus

Aeroflot Bonus is Aeroflot's frequent flyer program. Currently it supports three levels:

• Regular
• Silver, attained if member has flown 25000 miles or 25 segments during calendar year
• Gold, attained if member has flown 50000 miles or 50 segments during calendar year

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Incidents and accidents

There are records of approximately 127 accidents involving Aeroflot aircraft and 6,875 fatalities (plus 20 people killed on the ground), making an average of 54.13 fatalities per accident since 1953. It is worth noting with these figures that Aeroflot had a monopoly on air travel during the Soviet era, and was the largest airline in the world, and performed a myriad other functions in addition to passenger travel. The last incident with fatalities occurred in 1994:

• On 23 March 1994, a RAL-Russian Air Lines Airbus A310-304, operating Aeroflot Flight 593 crashed in Mezhdurechensk, Siberia after the pilot allowed his 15-year-old son to take the controls. This was the most recent disaster involving Aeroflot.

References

1. ^ Federal State Unitary Enterprise "State Air Traffic Management Corporation", Airline Reference, Vol. 1, Russian Federation, 20 February 2007, p. 125
2. Smith, Patrick (2004-03-09). "Ask the pilot". Salon.com. Retrieved 2007-08-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
3. SkyTeam (2006-04-14). "Aeroflot joins the SkyTeam alliance". Retrieved 2007-08-31.
4. ^ "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International. 2007-04-03. p. 47. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
5. http://latvia.aeroflot.ru/eng/news.asp?ob_no=447&d_no=2499 A Face Lift for Down-at-Heel Aeroflot New York Times, 7 April 2003
6. Aeroflot - Press releases (2007-01-24). "Aeroflot Board Of Directors Summarized The Business Results For 2006". Department of Public Relations. Retrieved 2007-04-23.
7. Aeroflot - Press releases (2007-03-14). "Aeroflot has received one more new A320 airliner" (in Russian). Department of Public Relations. Retrieved 2007-04-23.
8. Airfinance Journal (2007-05-11). "Aeroflot Increases Earnings". Retrieved 2007-06-10.
9. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/article2364152.ece Belfast Telegraph article.
10. Aeroflot - Press releases (2007-02-15). "Aeroflot Replaces TU-134 With New Aircrafts". Financial Times. Retrieved 2007-04-23.
11. International Herald Tribune (2006-09-19). "Aeroflot reserves 22 Boeing jets". Reuters. Retrieved 2007-06-10.
12. Aeroflot - World Media review (2007-03-17). "Aeroflot decides to buy Airbus for long-haul fleet". Financial Times. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
13. Ohio.com (Story no longer available) (2007-06-09). "Boeing, Aeroflot sign deal for Russian carrier to acquire Dreamliner jets". Retrieved 2007-06-09.
14. http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/airline_detail.cgi?airline=Aeroflot AirDisaster.com Accident Data

External links

• Aeroflot Official Website
• Aeroflot Fleet Age
• Aeroflot Fleet Information

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