Nordavia Regional Airline's CEO Oleg Usmanov announced this week that the carrier, formerly known as Aeroflot Nord, is to replace its Antonov AN-24 fleet with ATR42s. The airline primarily operates domestic schedules from hubs at Arkhangelsk, Moscow and Murmansk, but also offers European schedules, ad hoc and IT charters. Nordavia's current fleet comprises 15 Boeing 737-500s, one 737-300, four AN-24 passenger planes and two AN-26 freighters.
Nordavia's AN-24s are currently serve both domestic schedules and international routes to Helsinki and Tromsø. Following the recent ditching of an Angara Airlines AN-24 in western Siberia, Russian President Medvedev proposed banning all AN-24s by the end of 2011. Given that there are still around 130 AN-24s in service with nearly 30 Russian airlines, the effect of such a ban could be disastrous for some smaller carriers and harmful to Russian regional aviation in general. If the similar AN-26, a freighter, was also banned, a fleet of over 280 aircraft would be removed from service with more than 40 Russian carriers. A partial ban, restricting An-24 operations to charter flights only, seems the more likely outcome. Given that there are currently only two Russian ATR42 operators (UTair Aviation and NordStar) and only one for the "Dash 8" (SAT Airlines), Russia looks like becoming a growing, if relatively modest, market for
suppliers of ATR and Bombardier turboprops, whether by means of ban(s) or the gradual replacement of elderly Antonovs over the next few years.
Why not:
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Thu, Jul 21 2011 3:52 PM
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