Aeroflot has adjusted the delivery schedule for its outstanding aircraft orders. According to Russian business daily Vedomosti, the Moscow/Sheremetyevo-based carrier will now accept its Boeing 787 Dreamliners, despite claims it was attempting to cancel the order. “We’re trying to exit the deal,” Aeroflot’s CEO Vitaly Savelyev told Rossiya 24 television last October. “Boeing didn’t deliver them on time and we don’t need them in a slumping market.”
However, the carrier now appears to have made a U-turn after renegotiating the deal, which sees Aeroflot reduce its order from 22 to 20 Dreamliners and defer delivery by a year. The first examples are now due in 2017.
The airline has also trimmed its outstanding commitments for 777-300ERs from three to one – now planned for delivery next year – and delayed the handover of seven Next-Generation 737s to 2019. It has taken similar action with European manufacturer Airbus, axing nine A320 Family jets from an original order for 30, and deferring delivery by three years.
Elsewhere, Aeroflot has reversed plans to launch operations from Moscow/Domodedovo. The carrier had intended to serve a host of domestic destinations with three based A320s but will instead focus its efforts on Sheremetyevo – via its mainline operation – and Moscow/Vnukovo through newly expanded subsidiary Rossiya. The latter was expected to have inherited assets and routes from sister companies Donavia and Orenair, which were due to close at the end of March.
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