Last month, S7 has announced a new low-cost airline that is to commence operations in the summer of next year. This will be based around the central regions of Russia serving inter-regional routes with A320neo aircraft, 4 of which have already been contracted. As of yet, the airline is currently left unnamed.
This airline will follow a standard LCC business model, which will allow it to serve smaller destinations and skinnier routes that would otherwise be impossible using S7’s main business model. It will follow a point-to-point network, connecting mid-sized airports holding the motive of skipping an inconvenient connection in Moscow or St Petersburg. Pobeda currently monopolizes largely off of the underused low cost model within the market. They aim to commence with 22 destinations, with plans to triple that number within 2 years of launch.
“We see great potential in the inter-regional transportation segment, which we cannot cover within the current S7 Airlines business model.”
“Low-cost transportation is still concentrated mainly in Moscow and St Petersburg,”
-Tatyana Fileva, S7 shareholder
The establishment of this airline also ties in well with the Russian government’s efforts to satisfy the growing demand for the availability low-cost air travel, as stated by Transport Minister and former head of Aeroflot Vitaly Saveliev.
S7 also hopes that the airline will serve a million passengers within its first year, and expects that number to rise to 6-7 million from 2024.
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