Yakutia Airlines (R3, Yakutsk) will reduce its B737-700 fleet from three hulls to one while its Dash 8-400 fleet will be reduced from four to three the head of the airline's fleet management committee Ivan Vinokurov has said.
In an interview with ATO.ru, Vinokurov said the B737s, VQ-BLS (msn 30277) and VQ-BLT msn (30271) which are based at both Yakutsk and Moscow Vnukovo for scheduled and charter flights, are to be returned to their lessor, the Aviation Capital Group, by the end of this month while the Q400 - VP-BOV (cn 4017) - is to be returned to lessor Jetscape after the Russian government cut federal subsidies allocated for the development of regional air travel in the south of Russia.
Marking the carrier's 12th birthday late last month, Yakutia CEO Olga Fedorova said the decline in demand for domestic travel coupled with cutbacks in Russian federal funding and the weakening Russian Rouble had forced the airline to scale back its operations as a whole.
"The financial condition of the airline is strongly affected by fluctuations in exchange rates, as leasing agreements are concluded in the currency of the company - the lessor - usually in Dollars and Euros. We are also closely monitoring the situation with the banks, because the whole air transport industry is constantly in need of credit resources. Instability in the banking sector leads us to actively seek loans, and we are working with [Yakutia's] owner to provide guarantees to secure these resources," she said.
The airline's medium term strategy will focus on streamlining the airline's cost-structure through capacity reduction and route optimization in the Asia-Pacific region. Overall, the objective is to attract a suitable strategic investor she said.
Founded in 2003, the Russia Far East-based carrier operates scheduled and charter services to over 20 destinations across Russia and the CIS from bases in Yakutsk and Krasnodar.
