In an interview with RBC, the CEO of S7 Airlines Dmitry Kudelkin announced that the airline has no plans to abandon Brazilian Embraer E170 aircraft. The company previously planned to decommission them in 2023-2024 and replace them with larger and newer liners.
«We will continue to operate the E170, which are currently flying efficiently», — said Dmitry Kudelkin. He reported that almost all E170s are flying from Novosibirsk, where the S7 regional flight program is being seriously developed.
S7 Airlines owns 17 Embraer E170s, manufactured in 2004-2005. The liners were received in 2017-2018 on a seven-year operational lease from GE Capital Aviation Services Limited. Each of them can carry 78 passengers up to 3.8 thousand km. No other Russian airline has such aircraft.
The next most capacity in the S7 Airlines fleet is the medium-haul Airbus A320neo, designed for 164 seats and with a range of 6 thousand km. «This is the correct ratio in world aviation. Because the difference in capacity twice gives a sufficient difference in the cost of one flight. In this case, the flight on a small aircraft is significantly cheaper. If the difference in capacity is less, then a larger plane is always more effective» — explained Kudelkin.