Ural Airlines (U6, Ekaterinburg) has become the latest Russian carrier to request financial assistance from the Russian state after VTB Bank declined the carrier a loan. Thus far, Red Wings Airlines (WZ, Moscow Domodedovo), UTair (UT, Khanty-Mansiysk), and Transaero Airlines (Moscow Vnukovo) have all applied for assistance.
The official TASS newswire says that in addition to the carrier applying for RUB2 billion (USD32 million) in state-backed guarantees, Ural Airlines managing director Sergei Skuratov has also requested the Kremlin help resolve an impasse with VTB involving the extension of loans at concessionary rates. Skuratov is seeking the same assistance Transaero obtained in January when Moscow underwrote a RUB9 billion (USD144 million) loan which was financed by VTB Bank. VTB has argued that the majority of loans extended to Ural Airlines have been done so at below market rates resulting in the bank incurring major losses.
To help cope with a slowing Russian economy and a corresponding drop in the value of the Russian Rouble, Ural Airlines implemented a series of cost-cutting measures in January including route optimization, pilot pay restructuring, and performing all A320 C-checks in-house.
As Russia's sixth largest carrier, Ural Airlines operates an all-Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) fleet of six A319-100s, eighteen A320-200s, and ten A321-200s on scheduled and charter flights to 77 destinations located in Russia as well as in the CIS, China, the United Arab Emirates and the Mediterranean.
