Aeroflot is the national carrier of Russia; a country currently under fire within the aviation industry for it’s repeatative invasion of European Airspace. Amidst several incidents onboard, GA Media took a closer look at the airline and recent events.
Aero Who?
Aeroflot is Russia’s national carrier and largest airline in the nation ranking 1st with S7 and Transcero ranking 2nd and 3rd. Founded on the 9th January 1923 and beginning operations in July the same year, the carrier has a jaggered past dating back over 94 years. The motto of the carrier is: “Искренне ваш, Iskrenne vash” translating to Sincerly Yours in English, an aim it has sought to achieve through expansion and various codeshare flights with it’s subsidary carriers such as Rossiaya (Who now complete the London Gatwick – St Pertersburg sector), Probeda (Who complete several European links to the nation) and the 51% owned by Aeroflot subsidiary Aurora. Aeroflot is also currently a member of the Star Alliance.
The current state of Russian Aviation
With growing tensions between the nation’s of Russia and European Nations (Including the UK) and the United States, the aviation industry in the country has become sketchy; Weekly there are reports of aerospace invasions leading to interceptions and further political tension regarding recent chemical weapon attacks ‘by the state’ has only further enhanced such tensions.
Additionally, the development of the Ikrut MC21 aircraft (See our article here: https://officialglobalaviation.com/2018/05/16/second-mc-21-prototype-takes-flight/ ) has further destabilised the aviation industry in the country as European Airlines accuse the country of copying Airbus design.
The controversy has only further been fuelled with the recent scandal on Aeroflot Flight Attendant hiring procedures. The weighing and measuring of flight attendants is a practice which dates back go the roots of aviation but recently Aeroflot was revealed to be setting “unrealistic expectations of applicants” leading to the “embarrassment and dietary harm of aspiring Flight Attendants” in the country as benchmarks set by the flag carrier are often replicated in smaller regional carriers.
This country bias can certainly be seen as an influencing factor to recent media representation of such incidents.
But how exactly is the carrier performing?
On paper, Aeroflot is developing as a stable, prominent figure in the industry, this year having claimed several prestigious awards including best Eastern European Carrier, Best Preminum Economy and Europe’s leading airline and reported a turnaround in traffic with a 8.1% increase in Q1 of 2018 but upon closer inspection it seems the issues concerning fleet growth (In particular the MC21), cabin crew hiring methods and more recently the opening of a cargo hold on a 737-800 flight from St Petersburg to Moscow (See our article here: click here to view ) , it begs the question, does the carrier deserve these awards?
Given these concerns, we’d love to hear your opinion. Get in touch via: [email protected] or drop us a comment below. Is Aeroflot the prestigious growing airline it’s awards state, or is it doomed with growing political tensions and incidents? Let us know your thoughts!
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A copy of the article is also available in Russian translated in-house by the team.
