Aurora to add at least 45 Russian aircraft

According to Russian news agency TASS, lessor GTLK, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade and Aurora signed a road-map to lease and introduce at least 45 Russian-built aircraft, which are mainly going to be SSJ 100/95s, Il-114-300s and TVS-2DTS Baikals. Most of these new aircraft should be delivered by 2024.

Aurora is finalizing a big reorganization, which saw the withdrawal of Aeroflot as one of the two shareholders. The company is now owned for 50% (minus one share) by the government of the Sakhalin Oblast and ten other regional governments (Amur Oblast, Buryatia, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Zabaykalsky Krai, Kamchatka, Magadan Oblast, Primorsky Krai, Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Khabarovsk Krai, and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug) each own 5%. The Russian Federal Government will have the one remaining golden share, which includes veto-powers.

In its turn, Aurora has taken 25% of the shares of the airlines fully owned by these regional governments. These are Alrosa Aviakompania, Aviashelf, Chukotavia, Khabarovsk Avia, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Enterprise, Polar Airlines, SiLA-Avia and Yakutia Airlines. The airlines will retain their own brand but will coordinate fleet and network strategies.

The 45 new aircraft will, therefore not all be destined for Aurora itself, but for all airlines in the holding, which now totals a fleet of 131 aircraft including 40 helicopters. Aurora is the largest airline in the group with 22 aircraft, followed by Yakutia Airlines which operates seventeen aircraft.

Photo by Leslie Snelleman, kindly provided by AirHistory.net.