S7 Airlines


S7 Airlines, legally JSC Siberia Airlines, is an airline headquartered in Ob, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia, with offices in Moscow. As of 2008, it was Russia's largest domestic airline, with its main bases at Domodedovo International Airport and Tolmachevo Airport. It is a member of the Oneworld alliance.

History

Early years

What is now S7 Airlines started in 1957 as "the Tolmachevo united squadron" of the General Directorate of Civil Aviation of the Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union disintegration and during the 1990s Russian economic reforms, a state-run Siberia Airlines was created based on the squadron in 1992 and later privatized in 1994. The same year Siberia was assigned an IATA airline code.
In 1997, Siberia Airlines tried to buy Vnukovo Airlines, to make Moscow its next main hub, but this didn't eventuate. After the 1998 Russian financial crisis, Vnukovo Airlines was heading towards bankruptcy, and Siberia Airlines advised it to merge, but Vnukovo refused. In 1999, Siberia Airlines signed a document to take over Vnukovo Airlines, in the event Vnukovo ceased operations due to insolvency.

Development since the 2000s

Siberia Airlines began merging with Vnukovo Airlines in 2001. The same year, the airline absorbed Baikal Airlines and then in 2004, the airline absorbed Chelyabinsk Airlines and Enkor. In 2002, Siberia Airlines began its services from Vnukovo Airlines' former base Moscow-Vnukovo, but after some time it shifted all flights to Moscow-Domodedovo.
The first non-Russian aircraft, Airbus A310s, were acquired in 2004. In summer 2004, during the Farnborough Airshow, the company signed a memorandum of understanding to purchase fifty Sukhoi Superjet 100s, with the first to be delivered in 2007. However, the airline subsequently dropped its plans to order this aircraft, citing that the aircraft's changed specifications no longer met its requirements.
Siberia Airlines rebranded itself as S7 Airlines in 2005.
In line with an International Air Transport Association resolution, from December 2006 the airline began to publish its fares for international destinations originating in Russia in euros, rather than US dollars. This resulted in a fare increase, as the conversion rate used was 1 euro = 1 US dollar. Fuel surcharges were also published in euros. Its domestic fares were still to be shown in the local currency. Also in December 2006, the airline became the second Russian air carrier to complete, and pass, the IATA Operational Safety Audit, which is the first global air safety standard.
It was announced in April 2007 that a new division had been set up within the airline, called Globus. This division was to focus on charter flights for tourists to foreign holiday destinations. Initially, the aircraft for this division would be drawn from the mainline fleet, but during 2010–2014, ten Boeing 737-800 aircraft were leased with an all-economy layout, with the option for a further ten aircraft.
S7 joined the Oneworld airline alliance in 2010.
In November 2015, S7 Airlines made an offer to acquire a majority stake in bankrupt Transaero. However, the proposal was rejected by shareholders.
In 2016, American band OK Go partnered with S7 to film a "zero-g" music video for their song "Upside Down & Inside Out", aboard a reduced gravity aircraft.
On 28 August 2018, S7 announced the investment of $192.87 million for a new manufacturing plant of its business plan "Victory" in Moscow. The investment is expected to produce 1000 jobs. In December 2018, a few months after the completion of its purchase of Sea Launch the parent holding company was renamed from S7 Group to S7 AirSpace Corporation to reflect the transition from an aviation-only business.
On 31 March 2019, chairwoman and co-owner Natalia Fileva died after the Epic LT private plane she was in crashed while landing at Frankfurt Egelsbach Airport. In August 2019, S7 Airlines announced the charity work by collecting the financial support for Siberian forests, harmed by massive fires. Therefore, the airline decided to colour one of the Airbus A320-200 to the hybrid-retro livery, to underline its previous and technical name – Siberia Airlines, by combining two liveries: of 1992-2005 and 2017-today. Also in August 2019, the airline's head announced that S7 Airlines and Globus Airlines will merge till December 2019, therefore closing the operations of the second airline. By early December 2019, the merger had been completed.

Financial and operational performance

There are financial and operational performance S7 Airlines starting from 2011:

2011201220132014201520162017
Passengers flown 5,1286,3517,0857,9388,2079,5099,948
— Domestic flights 3,5484,0104,3855,0935,5266,6736,881
— International flights 1,5802,3412,7002,8452,6812,8363,067
Load factor, %75.680.180.980.080.385.285.3
Turnover 45,26455,86462,72170,70682,215108,111117,722
Net Profit 7345467028689232,8964,432
Number of employees—2,5072,7112,6722,7522,5712,878
Number of aircraft —384345454662
Source

Destinations

S7 Airlines operates to almost 150 destinations domestically within Russia and internationally throughout Europe and Asia.

Codeshare agreements

S7 has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

Current fleet

, the S7 Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Fleet development

On 29 May 2007, the airline announced a proposed order for fifteen Boeing 787 Dreamliners scheduled for delivery in 2014, with an option for ten additional aircraft. However, the order was officially cancelled on 29 January 2009, with S7 stating that it was considering the possibility of taking the aircraft under a leasing scheme. As of November 2008, all Soviet-made aircraft had left the fleet.
In April 2018, S7 renewed interest in the Sukhoi Superjet by planning to purchase 25 Sukhoi Superjet 75 aircraft, with an option of 50 more for the new modification of the Superjet family, and become the launch customer. These will replace the airline's aging Embraer 170 aircraft. The airline plans to take deliveries of this aircraft from 2023. However in September 2019, it was announced the project had been scrapped.
In October 2018, the airline took delivery of its first Boeing 737 MAX 8 and became the Russian launch customer of the aircraft type.

Retired Fleet

At different times, the S7 Airlines fleet has consisted of the following aircraft:
AircraftIntroducedRetiredReplacementNotes
Airbus A310-20020042010Airbus A320 family
Boeing 737-800
Airbus A310-30020042014Airbus A320 family
Boeing 737-800		One crashed as S7 Airlines Flight 778
Antonov An-2419922000Boeing 737 Classic
Boeing 737-40020062008Boeing 737-800Transferred to subsidiary Globus Airlines
Boeing 737-50020052009Boeing 737-800
Boeing 767-300ER20082017Airbus A321neo
Ilyushin Il-8619922008Boeing 767-300ER
Tupolev Tu-154B-219922004Boeing 737-500One crashed as Siberia Airlines Flight 1047
Tupolev Tu-154M19922009Airbus A320 family
Boeing 737-800		One crashed as Siberia Airlines Flight 1812
Tupolev Tu-204-10019922006Airbus A310
Airbus A319

Incidents and accidents

is a subsidiary of S7, located on the grounds of Tolmachevo Airport.