Red Wings Airlines (WZ, Moscow Domodedovo) is planning to introduce A321-200s into its fleet later this year, airline sources have told Russia's Vedomosti news.
According to the report, four Airbus twinjets may arrive between June and December of this year on short-term lease contracts (five-year duration) with a further four due thereafter. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the carrier's parent firm and lessor, the Ilyushin Finance Co. (IFC), Aleksandr Rubtsov later confirmed the arrival of the A321s adding that they, along with RedWings' current fleet of fourteen Tu-204/Tu-214s, would be replaced with Irkut MC-21s from 2019 onwards. It is recalled that Red Wings has already signed a contract for ten MC-21s.
Ahead of the MC-21s' arrival, Rubtsov said the carrier would use its current Tu204s and A321s to develop its tourism market niche adding services to leisure spots such as Sochi, Krasnodar, Simferopol, Turkey, Egypt, Vietnam and other Asian destinations.
As previously reported, the IFC is set to take complete control of the entire share capital of Red Wings through its wholly-owned Airline Asset Management unit. The move is part of a debt-to-equity conversion.
