Aeroflot – Russian Airlines has acquired 11th Airbus A330. The aircraft has been named after Osip Mandelshtam, one of the famous Russian poets of 20th century, the company reports. AEX.ru
It is the first of 11 ordered by Aeroflot in 2010 A330-300s, and it is the first aircraft acquired directly from Airbus. Aeroflot has leased such aircraft earlier. At present Aeroflot has already been operating 10 A330s, which were used to strengthen the long-haul transportation segment.
А330-300 aircraft has a range of 10500 km. It also has 302 seats. The jets are equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent 772В engines.
А330-300 liners are delivered to Aeroflot in a two-class configuration: 34 seats in business-class and 268 seats in the economy one. The new jets, starting from O.Mandelshtam aircraft, are fitted with special equipment providing on-board access to the Internet and mobile services to the passengers. A330 aircraft is also equipped with modern in-flight entertainment system Panasonic eX2, available for passengers of any class.
«The wide-body А330 provide a high level of comfort by using the configuration of chairs and service classes meeting the most diversified requests of the passengers. Comfortable expanding cocoon-type chairs are installed in business-class cabin. The seat pitch has been increased in the economy-class cabin for provision of the most comfortable allocation of passengers», - the airline’s representative explained.
Aeroflot uses A330 for domestic and international flights. At present these aircraft perform flights to Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Deli, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong-Kong, Seoul, New York, Los Angeles, Havana, Punta-Kana and Antalya. New aircraft will help increase the regularity of flights on routes with the highest demand.
Aeroflot is the first customer and operator of Airbus aircraft in Russia; it has started operating A310 in 1992. It is also the first airline on the Post-Soviet space, which has started operating А319 (2003), А321 (2004) and А330 family in November 2008. The Russia’s leading carrier – the largest operator of Airbus aircraft in the region having a fleet of 75 А320 family aircraft and 11 А330 family aircraft. In addition, Aeroflot has placed a firm order on 22 A350 XWBs in 2007.
Airbus has won more than 1100 commitments on А330 family aircraft. More than 750 aircraft are currently operated by more than 110 customers worldwide.