Azimuth Airlines has opened its second base in Krasnodar. The carrier's sixth Superjet 100 aircraft, which was just received and named "Kuban", is located there, Travel.ru's own correspondent reports.
The first five Azimuth airliners are based in Rostov-on-Don, from where the carrier serves 6 routes (from the beginning of April there will be 9, by the beginning of May - 11). From Krasnodar, two routes are currently open - to St. Petersburg and Makhachkala. In early April, Ufa will be added, in early May - Moscow. The company is planning several more destinations from Krasnodar.
— We are planning to service about 10 routes from Krasnodar this year, — said Pavel Udod, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Azimut. — In addition to those for which ticket sales have already opened, these will be Yekaterinburg, Kaluga, Simferopol, Kaliningrad, Nizhnekamsk, Yerevan. In the next 2-3 years, we expect to increase the network of lines from Krasnodar to about 25. In total, we have 30 routes planned for 2018, including 16 from Rostov, 10 from Krasnodar, 2 from Moscow and 2 from St. Petersburg.
— What international lines are you planning?
— We will start with Yerevan and Bishkek. Bishkek will be opened in May from Rostov with a frequency of 1 flight per week for now. Yerevan is planned for autumn from both Rostov and Krasnodar with good frequency — we assume at least 5 times per week from each city. Bishkek will probably appear later from Krasnodar as well.
— You already service two routes from Krasnodar. Are you satisfied with them?
— The figures correspond to our calculations. The load on both lines is higher than 80% even in winter. Now we are increasing the frequency to Makhachkala to 3 per week. We could have done this in winter, but the number of planes did not allow it. In general, St. Petersburg is an expectedly capacious route, there were no surprises. Regional flights are, of course, somewhat greater risks — nevertheless, they work well. Those lines that exist from Rostov to other regions, we try to service on a subsidized basis, from the regional and federal budgets.
— You also received permission to travel on the Rostov-Almaty line…
— I can’t say anything specific about Kazakhstan yet in terms of timing. The idea is to connect flights from Kazakhstan in Rostov and Krasnodar with flights to Europe, in particular to Germany. But flights to distant foreign countries will only become available to us in a little over a year. Therefore, we want to open Kazakhstan as close to this date as possible — that is, in about a year. In addition to Kazakhstan, we are also considering flights to Belarus, and from autumn 2019, we will gradually develop distant foreign countries, namely Turkey, Cyprus, Israel, the Czech Republic, Italy, and almost all CIS countries.
— What are your plans for the planes?
— Today we received the sixth aircraft. It and the next two, which are expected in April, will be based in Krasnodar. Further plans are to increase the total number of aircraft to 16-17.
— Do you plan to open bases other than Rostov and Krasnodar?
— Only two bases for now. When we get 16-17 aircraft, then we will think about the third base. Preliminary, there is great interest and there is a working group on Kaliningrad. It is also possible to base in Sochi. But for the near future we definitely have only two bases.
— How many passengers do you plan to transport?
— In 2018, more than 700 thousand, specifically in Krasnodar — more than 250 thousand. Plans for 2019 — approximately 1.2 million.
— Are you considering other aircraft? Or maybe a shortened version of the Superjet?
— We did not consider the 75-seat option, the population density in the south is high and the 100-seat option is optimal. The load is good, as I already said — so even our current passenger flow will not fit into 75 seats. The dynamics of passenger flow growth in the south is the highest in the country.
— What is your experience of operating the Superjet and what is your flight time?
— The experience is positive, but we approach all this very carefully — we reserve aircraft, created a large spare parts bank. Now the monthly flight time is 200 hours per aircraft. Not a high figure, but decent for Russia. We did not strive to increase it much at the first stage. Since May, we have planned 250 hours. This, of course, is also about 15% below the world average. But we have almost no failures, now we are the most punctual company in Rostov.
Source: travel.ru
