Dobrolet (Moscow Sheremetyevo) will return to the skies in October albeit as a different entity Aeroflot (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo) CEO Vitaly Savelyev has announced. While the initial proposal failed to gain the support of the airline's board, a later meeting reconsidered the decision and decided to go with it.
"We will register a new company, after all," Savelyev was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying. "We decided to go ahead with this scenario."
Contrary to previous reports, Savelyev said a revitalized Dobrolet will not operate only Russian-built aircraft but will aim instead to operate a fleet of four B737-800s by year-end.
The CEO did not reveal the proposed new name for the carrier but did state that its initial route network would include flights to Ufa, Samara Kurumoch, Perm Bolshoye Savino, and Volgograd. On whether the airline would serve Simferopol in the disputed Crimean peninsula, Savelyev said that would depend primarily on demand.
Dobrolet was slapped with sanctions by the European Union and the United States following the downing of Malaysia Airlines (MH, Kuala Lumpur International) flight MH17 over rebel-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine last month. Both the Europeans and the Americans accuse Russia of covertly supporting the rebels and claim the flight was shot down using a Russian-sponsored Surface-to-Air missile.
