Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast-headquartered Ural Airlines has just added a brand new Airbus A321neo to its fleet of aircraft. In a statement released on July 16, 2021, the Russian carrier said that the plane arrived a day earlier from the Airbus plant in Hamburg, Germany.
The shiny new aircraft has been given the registration number of VQ-BKX and is the fourth new Airbus A321neo to join the Ural Airlines fleet. When speaking about the new aircraft in the company statement, Ural Airlines says that passengers will enjoy impeccable comfort due to the spacious cabin.
The A321neo is more efficient
Ural Airlines Airbus A321neo aircraft are configured in a single class 3+3 layout with 236 ultra-thin economy class seats. Each seat has a USB charging point for telephones and other electronic gadgets, and the cabin has programmable lighting to help make the flight more pleasant.
Being focused on providing the next generation of aircraft to the world, the Airbus A321neo is fitted with LEAP-1A32 engines from CFM International and special wingtips with sharklets. The new generation of alloys and composites used to build the plane adds to the jet's fuel savings and range compared to non-neo versions. More environmentally friendly, the Airbus A321neos emissions are reduced by 5,000 tons compared to earlier models. Its noise footprint is reduced by 50%.
Ural Airlines deployed its new Airbus A321neo on its flagship route between Koltsovo International Airport (SVX) and Moscow Domodedovo Airport (DME) on July 16, 2021. When looking at the Ural Airlines schedule, they offer eight flights a day between Yekaterinburg and Moscow. All flights are non-stop and take two hours and thirty minutes.
Ural Airlines used to be a part of Aeroflot
Founded initially as part of Russian national flag carrier Aeroflot when the Russian Federation was a part of the Soviet Union, Ural Airlines focused on domestic routes out of Koltsovo International Airport (SVX). Following the break up of the Soviet Union, Ural Airlines became a stand-alone airline listed on the Moscow stock exchange.
Having inherited Antonov An-24s, Ilyushin Il-86s, and Tupolev Tu-154B-2s from its Aeroflot days, Ural Airlines set about modernizing its fleet with Airbus aircraft. According to aviation statistics and data website ch-aviation Ural Airlines currently has a fleet of 50 aircraft made up of the following planes:
- 5 x Airbus A319-100s
- 23 x Airbus A320-200s
- 3 x Airbus A320neos
- 15 x A321-200s
- 4 x Airbus A321neos
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Ural Airlines future orders
Ural Airlines has outstanding orders for eight Airbus A320-200s and three Boeing 737-800s.
In its statement about the arrival of its latest Airbus A321neo, Ural Airlines says that it plans to welcome two more aircraft in August. Seeing as Ural Airlines has no more Airbus A321neos on order, we can assume that the planes will be A320-200s. In its statement, Ural Airlines says that the two aircraft are currently undergoing final training at the Airbus plant in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
As you can see from the above list of planes, Ural Airlines does not have any widebody aircraft and is primarily focused on domestic flights and flights to neighboring countries and Europe.
Have you ever flown with Ural Airlines? If so, we would love to hear about what you thought of them in the comments.