One more Russian air carrier will operate charter flights from Russia to Tajikistan beginning on September 1. Red Wings Airlines has joined Tajikistan’s Tajik Air and Somon Air and Russia’s Ural Airlines in operating charter flights from Russia to Tajikistan.
Russia’s Red Wings Airlines will operate at least two flights a day from Moscow and one flight in a day from St. Petersburg, a source within the Tajik Embassy in Moscow told Asia-Plus Friday morning.
According to him, Tajik Air’s plane will operate its last charter flight on August 30 and after that it will have to undergo a major overhaul.
Meanwhile, representatives of the Tajik Air press center say they knew nothing about the upcoming overhaul. “The leadership deals with this matter,” they added.
Red Wings Airlines is a Russian leisure airline based in Moscow Domodedovo Airport. The airline provides both scheduled passenger and cargo services.
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 newly built and used. The company had a fleet of ten Tu-204-100Bs (an eleventh Tu-204 was written off after crashing at Vnukovo International Airport 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 February 4, 2013. The airline had ceased all operations the day before and owner Alexander Lebedev announced that no return to operation was planned.
On April 4, 2013, NRC sold Red Wings Airlines Group "Guta" for a symbolic one ruble (in this case, leased aircraft remained with the lessor NRC-owned company "Ilyushin Finance"). On June 18, 2013, the Federal Air Transport Agency renewed the certificate of the operator Red Wings to perform commercial transportation of passengers and cargo. On June 22, the airline resumed charter flights. On July 12, the airline resumed scheduled flights from Moscow.
To increase business power, Red Wings and Nordavia decided to merge. The process already began, alas the date when the airlines will fully merge, and will they be separate or work under one airline, is still a question. This plan calls for the Airbus A320, which initially was ordered for Nordavia, to be delivered by Red Wings. The new brand name will be known, after finishing the merger procedure.
On September 20, 2018, it was announced that Red Wings will re-brand.
