In Siberia, a new regional airline East-West Airlines is being created, which will unite the Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk airports and connect the region with main routes. The initiative has received high level support, and the fleet will initially consist of Yak 42, later Tu 204, Tu 2014, Superjet and Airbus will be added.
A new regional airline, East-West Airlines (Eastern-Western Airlines), has been created in Siberia on the basis of two airports — Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk.The corresponding decision was announced during the visit of Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin to Irkutsk last weekend.
As the Minister of Industry and Energy of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Denis Pashkov, told a NIA correspondent the day before, the initiator of this project was the Governor of Irkutsk Oblast, Igor Esipovsky. The idea was also actively supported by the office of the presidential envoy in the Siberian Federal District.
“In Irkutsk Oblast, we see a reliable partner. So in the near future we will get a truly functioning regional airline,” the minister commented. “I believe this is the right decision — to unite the Siberian regions in terms of the air route network, as well as to connect the region with trunk networks,” he emphasized.
Answering a question about the founders’ participation in the airline’s share capital, Denis Pashkov noted that it is still too early to speak about this. “I am not ready to disclose the structure of the share capital, since the negotiations have not yet been completed,” he said.
It is worth noting that the East-West Airlines fleet will initially consist of Yak-42 aircraft. In the second stage of the airline’s development, Tu-204 and Tu-2014 aircraft will enter medium- and long-haul operations, and later — Superjet and Airbus.