Red Wings Airlines
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| Founded | 1999 | ||||||
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| Hubs | Moscow, Domodedovo Airport | ||||||
| Focus cities | Moscow, Anapa, Volgograd, Kaliningrad, Krasnodar, Makhachkala, Mineralnye Vody, Omsk, Simferopol, Sochi, Tivat, Ufa | ||||||
| Fleet size | 11 | ||||||
| Destinations | 20 | ||||||
| Headquarters | Moscow, Russia | ||||||
| Key people | Sergei Kuznetsov, Evgeny Klyucharev (CEO) | ||||||
| Website | www.flyredwings.com | ||||||
Red Wings Airlines is an airline based in Vnukovo Airport, Western Administrative Okrug, Moscow, Russia. The airline provides both scheduled passenger and cargo charter services.
The airline ceased operation in February 2013, when its license was revoked because of safety and maintenance issues. The license was reinstated in June 2013.
Red Wings was founded in 1999 under the name VARZ-400, after the Russian acronym of the Vnukovo Avia Repair Factory. It was renamed Airlines 400 in 2001, before adopting its current name in 2007.
The airline was owned by Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev, who wanted to create a discount airline using modern Russian Tupolev Tu-204-100B 210-passenger twin-jet airliners, both new-built and used. The company had a fleet of ten Tu-204-100Bs (an eleventh Tu-204 was written off after crashing at Moscow Vnukovo on 29 December 2012), and had also sought to acquire Airbus A320s and possibly Airbus A321s to complement its Tu-204 fleet.
Lebedev also owned 49% of German charter airline Blue Wings, which was to become Red Wings's sister company. However, on 13 January 2010, Blue Wings ceased all operations and filed for bankruptcy, citing the global financial crisis for a pull-out of investors.
After the December, 2012 Red Wings Flight 9268 crash in Vnukovo, Russian aviation authorities initiated an emergency check of airline operational activities and fleet maintenance, resulting in the revocation of the carrier's AOC effective on 4 February 2013. The airline had ceased all operations the day before and owner Alexander Lebedev announced that no return to operation was planned.
On 4 April 2013 NRC sold Red Wings Airlines Group "Guta" for a symbolic 1 ruble (in this case leased aircraft remained with the lessor - NRC-owned company "Ilyushin Finance"). The new owners of Red Wings plan to increase the fleet of 10-15 aircraft. The airline is going to buy only Russian aircraft. On 25 April 2013 it was announced that the airline Red Wings, was now headed by Sergey Belov, previously CEO of the airline "Russia." On 18 June 2013 the Federal Air Transport Agency renewed the certificate of the operator Red Wings to perform commercial transportation of passengers and cargo. On 22 June the airline resumed charter flights, and on 12 July 2013 scheduled flights from Moscow.
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Wikipedia