The respective fifteen-year financial lease deal is arranged by Russia’s largest aircraft leasing firm Ilyushin Finance (IFC) with help of the Irkutsk regional administration. Thus Angara becomes third type user in Russia and second to operate the -100E version featuring extended range, at 4,400km (2,375nm). The aircraft is the first in the market with an all-economy cabin seating 75 passengers at 32-inch pitch.

In December 2012 Angara plans to commence revenue services on the type, initially from Irkutsk to Novosibirsk and Ust-Kut. Early next year services to Khabarovsk, Yakutsk, Bratsk and Blagoveshensk shall be added. Starting in summer 2013, Angara plans to commence tourist charters to foreign destinations in Asia-Pacific, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Tokyo and Seoul.

The RA-61713 is ninth An-148 placed with a Russian airline after being completed at the VASO plant in Voronezh. It features some improvements to the baseline design so as to address experience of the type’s three years on revenue services. These include heating of doors to prevent their freezing in the Siberian climates, and other changes to make the airplane better suited to operations in the harsh environments, using snow-covered, gravel and soil airfields with length less than 1,600m.

Angara has an MRO division of its own. It provides line and base maintenance to the An-24/26 and An-12 operators. For this purpose Angara uses a hangar in the Irkutsk city airport whose dimensions permit taking a pair of An-148 inside of it. The airline hopes to win approval for An-148/158 line and base maintenance in November 2012, after all necessary instruments are in place and equipment is installed.

Angara has already qualified 40 ground crews in the An-148 and plans to increase the number to 51 by the time revenue flights commence. Besides, six specialists from VASO will provide manufacturer’s support under guarantee obligations. “We are looking for qualified people for full employment, especially avionics specialists”, Angara general director Anatoly Yurtaev told us. Under the contract terms, VASO and engine maker Motor-Sich provide a three-year support in frame of their guarantee obligations. In addition, Angara has arranged for a spare engine and a spare APU to be stored in Irkutsk airport in case a change is needed.

Angara has qualified seven flight crew members in the An-148 including two captains. The airline plans to have 30 qualified pilots by the year-end. Twenty pilots are completing their training curves, flying with Rossiya and the Ukraine International Airlines (MAU) on revenue passenger services as the final part of their syllabus. “To expedite preparation of additional flight crews we will hire instructor pilots from the State Scientific Research Institute of Civil Aviation, Rossiya and Antonov. They will fly out of Irkutsk together with our pilots qualifying in the new type”, Yurtaev says.

During 2013 Angara plans to achieve monthly utilization of 200-220 flight hours per airframe. This, together with subsidies and financial help from the local administration, shall enable profitable operations on the given route network. In future, the airline wants to acquire several An-158s to supplement smaller An-148s on services to large cities. Today, Angara operates a fleet of 8 An-24/26 turboprops, 3 An-2 biplanes and 14 Mi-8 helicopters.

As of this time, Angara is not involved in the business aviation – except for providing hangarage and services in the airport - but notices a high pace of its development in the region. Yurtaev says: “I believe that business jets have good prospects in this region. Right now some Hawkers are already here, flying rather frequently for TransNeft [oil company]. It is expected that the number of business aviation flights will grow up due to the ongoing projects in the region after oil fields were found here”.

Before UTair came, Angara was the largest rotorcraft operator in its home region. Historically, these operations were performed by specialized Irkutsk-Avia company until 2010. Then shareholders made decision to merge Irkutsk-Avia with Angara (which by that time had only airplanes). “Today our helicopter fleet is 14 unit strong. Recently, we purchased a pair of Mil Mi-8MTVs, which are modern, highly competitive machines powered by Klimov TV3-117 motors. The other twelve are older Mi-8Ts with less powerful TV2-117s”, Yurtaev told us.

All of those twelve Mi-8Ts are distributed between four bases, three at each. They can fly at short notice, performing search and rescue, and medical services. Angara notices fast-rising solvent demand for rotorcraft services in the region. Much of it comes from the cities and towns situated close to the oil fields. “Rotorcraft operations give us good profitability right now”, Yurtaev claims.

He adds: “We are looking to acquire lighter helicopters. The reason is that the Mi-8T does not completely satisfy our customers. The pair of the new Mi-8MTV works abroad right now, but we are calling them back. These are needed at our home bases to provide some competition to UTair, which is already offering Mi-171 services in this market, - and the Mi-171 is a very competitive product.  We are considering buying a quantity for ourselves, for which negotiations are ongoing with the type manufacturer Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant”.

Going back to the An-148, Angara has compared the An-148 to the CRJ100/200 aircraft family operated out of Irkutsk by competing airlines. Angara has found out that the relatively small cabin volume of the narrow-fuselage Bombardier jets is a disadvantage. “We know well who are our passengers… and we also know about their experience of flying the CRJ – they complain about shortage of cabin space”. Besides, the CRJ100/200 models are no longer in production, whereas Angara wanted airframes new from the factory. “We made calculations which showed that on our routes the An-148 fares better than the competition”, Yurtaev says.

With its 4,400km range, the An-148 can reach deep into China. Yurtaev shares his plans on this topic: “We will start with tourist charters, and, later on, may apply for a license to fly regular passenger services on the international routes – the one we used to have. This license has been suspended because we did not have suitable airplanes”. Angara has a long standing partner in the form of the East Land company, which runs a tourist business. “We are working together with the tourist company, trying to make good arrangements for holiday makers”.

Angara is also looking for a partnership with a major airline. During seasonal drops, a Boeing 737 or a narrow body Airbus can be temporarily replaced by the An-148. “With Ilyushin Finance team we do a very careful planning of the route network, trying to escape hand-on competition with major airlines. Our niche is regional and helicopter operations”.