Western suppliers are preparing to respond to two major fleet tenders from newly strengthened Russian carriers this year that herald the emergence of the country as a significant new aircraft market.
To date, only Aeroflot has been a notable acquirer of new aircraft in the country, but its labyrinthine procurement process has been overwhelmingly driven by political considerations related to the Putin administration.
But now Kaliningrad-based KD-Avia is seeking at least 20 aircraft with options, which will not necessarily be Boeing types despite the carrier's reliance on leased 737s so far. The well-financed airline was touring European capitals last week presenting its business case and negotiating airport access. It is based in what is effectively a Russian exclave between Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic Sea.
A source in a major Western supplier who was invited to one of the briefings, says KD-Avia's concept is to offer travellers to secondary Russian cities an alternative to Moscow as a transit hub - particularly to avoid Aeroflot's notorious Sheremetyevo base. The airline is promising connections shorter than 20min. The source says: "It's a good plan and they are well-funded. We were impressed."
Domestically the airline serves Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Omsk, Ufa, Kazan and Yekaterinburg, each having population of more than a million. Planned Western destinations are Barcelona, Budapest, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, London, Milan, Munich, Prague and Rome. Paris is missing because of a lack of satisfactory slots.
Later this year industry is expecting to see a tender for narrowbodies from the newly constituted AirUnion company that brings together the interests of Domodedovo Airlines, KrasAir, Omskavia, Samara Airlines and Sibaviatrans and is 45%-owned by the Russian government.
It is unclear how many aircraft it may order, but it carried nearly 4.9 million passengers last year and has ambitions to grow.