OJSC Aeroflot – Russian Airlines
(Aeroflot-Rossiyskiye avialinii), commonly known as Aeroflot ("air
fleet"), is the flag carrier and largest airline of the Russian
Federation. The carrier operates domestic and international
passenger and services, mainly from its hub at Sheremetyevo
International Airport.
Aeroflot is one of the oldest airlines in the
world, tracing its history back to 1923. During the Soviet era,
Aeroflot was the Soviet national airline and the largest airline in
the world. Following the dissolution of the USSR, the carrier has
been transformed from a state-run enterprise into a semi-privatised
company which ranked 19th most profitable airline in the world in
2007. Aeroflot is still considered the de facto national airline of
Russia. It is 51%-owned by the Russian Government. As of September
2013, the Aeroflot Group had 30,328 employees.
The company has embarked on a fleet
modernisation programme, extensive route restructuring, and an
image overhaul. The airline joined SkyTeam in April 2006, becoming
the 10th member of the alliance.
An early Soviet poster calling on citizens to
buy stock in Dobrolyot.
On 17 January 1921, the Sovnarkom of the Russian Soviet
Federative Socialist Republic published "About Air Transportation".
The document which was signed by Vladimir Lenin set out the basic
regulations on air transport over the territory of the RSFSR. The
document was significant as it was the first time that a Russian
state had declared sovereignty over its airspace. In addition, the
document defined rules for the operation of foreign aircraft over
the Soviet Union´s airspace and territory. After Lenin issued an
order, a State Commission was formed on 31 January 1921 for the
purpose of civil aviation planning in the Soviet Union. As a result
of the commission´s plans, Glavvozdukhflot (Chief Administration of
the Civil Air Fleet) was established, and it began mail and
passenger flights on the Moscow-Oryol-Kursk-Kharkov route on 1 May
1921 using Sikorsky Ilya Muromets aircraft. This was followed by
the formation of Deruluft-Deutsch Russische Luftverkehrs A.G. in
Berlin on 11 November 1921, as a joint venture between the Soviet
Union and Germany. The company, whose aircraft were registered in
both Germany and the Soviet Union, began operations on 1 May 1922
with a Fokker F.III flying between Konigsberg and Moscow. The
service was initially operated twice a week and restricted to the
carriage of mail.
On 3 February 1923 Sovnarkom approved plans for the expansion of
the Red Air Fleet, and it is this date which was officially
recognised as the beginning of civil aviation in the Soviet Union.
After a resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union, the Enterprise for Friends of the Air Fleet
(ODVF) was founded on 8 March 1923, followed by the formation of
Dobrolet (Russian:
Добролёт) on 17
March 1923. Regular flights by Dobrolet from Moscow to Nizhniy
Novgorod commenced on 15 July 1923. During the same period, an
additional two airlines were established; Zakavia being based in
Tiflis, and Ukrvozdukhput based in Kharkov. During 1923 an
agreement was signed establishing a subdivision of Dobrolet to be
based in Tashkent, which would operate to points in Soviet Central
Asia. Services between Tashkent and Alma Ata began on 27 April
1924, and by the end of 1924 the subdivision had carried 480
passengers and 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) of mail and freight, on a
total of 210 flights. In March 1924, Dobrolet began operating
flights from Sevastopol to Yalta and Yevpatoriya in the Crimea.
Dobrolet´s route network was extended during the 1925–1927
period to include Kazan and regular flights between Moscow and
Kharkov were inaugurated. Plans were made for Dobrolet flights to
Kharkov to connect with Ukrvozdukhput services to Kiev, Odessa and
Rostov-on-Don. During 1925, Dobrolet operated 2,000 flights over a
distance of 1,000,000 kilometres (620,000 mi), carrying 14,000
passengers and 127,500 kilograms (281,100 lb) of freight, on a
route network extending to some 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi).
Dobrolet was transformed from a Russian to an all-Union enterprise
on 21 September 1926 as a result of Sovnarkom resolutions, and in
1928 Dobrolet was merged with Ukrvozdukhput; the latter having
merged with Zakavia in 1925.
The Tupolev ANT-20bis was used for cargo flights from Moscow to
Mineralnye Vody before World War II.
Responsibility for all civil aviation activities in the Soviet
Union came under the control of the Chief Directorate of the Civil
Air Fleet on 25 February 1932, and on 25 March 1932 the name
"Aeroflot" was officially adopted for the entire Soviet Civil Air
Fleet. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union Congress in 1933 set
out development plans for the civil aviation industry for the
following five years, which would see air transportation becoming
one of the primary means of transportation in the Soviet Union,
linking all major cities. The government also implemented plans to
expand the Soviet aircraft industry to make it less dependent on
foreign built aircraft; in 1930 some fifty percent of aircraft
flying services in the Soviet Union were of foreign
manufacture.
Expansion of air routes which had taken shape in the late 1920s,
continued into the 1930s. Local services were greatly expanded in
Soviet Central Asia and the Soviet Far East, which by the end of
the second Five-Year Plan in 1937 was 35,000 kilometres (22,000 mi)
in length out of a total network of some 93,300 kilometres (58,000
mi). The agreement between the Soviet Union and Germany relating to
Deruluft expired on 1 January 1937, and wasn´t renewed, which saw
the joint venture carrier ceasing operations on 1 April 1937. On
that date Aeroflot began operations on the Moscow to Stockholm
route, and began operating the ex-Deruluft route from Leningrad to
Riga utilising Douglas DC-3s and Tupolev ANT-35s (PS-35s). Flights
from Moscow to Berlin, via Konigsberg, were suspended until 1940,
when they were restarted by Aeroflot and Lufthansa as a result of
the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and would continue
until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in 1941.
An Aeroflot PS-84 (a licence-built DC-3) at Moscow City Airport in
1940. The Lisunov Li-2, a derivative of the DC-3 would become the
backbone of the fleet after the Great Patriotic War.
Under the third Five-Year Plan, which began in 1938, civil
aviation development continued, with improvements to airport
installations being made and construction of airports being
commenced. In addition to the expansion of services between the
Soviet Union´s main cities, local routes (MVL) were also expanded,
and by 1940, some 337 MVL routes saw operations on a scheduled
basis. Serial production of the PS-84 (licence-built DC-3s)
commenced in 1939, and the aircraft became the backbone of
Aeroflot´s fleet on mainline trunk routes. When the Soviet Union
was invaded by Nazi Germany on 22 June 1941, the following day the
Sovnarkom placed the Civil Air Fleet under the control of Narkomat,
leading to the full-scale mobilisation of Aeroflot crews and
technicians for the Soviet war effort. Prior to the invasion, the
Aeroflot network extended over some 146,000 kilometres (91,000 mi),
and amongst the longest routes being operated from Moscow were
those to Tbilisi (via Baku), Tashkent and Vladivostok. Aeroflot
aircraft, including PS-35s and PS-43s, were based at Moscow´s
Central Airport, and amongst important missions undertaken by
Aeroflot aircraft and crews included flying supplies to the
besieged cities of Leningrad, Kiev, Odessa and Sevastopol. During
the Battle of Stalingrad, between August 1942 and February 1943,
Aeroflot operated 46,000 missions to Stalingrad, ferrying in 2,587
tonnes (5,703,000 lb) of supplies and some 30,000 troops. Following
the defeat of the Wehrmacht, some 80 Junkers Ju-52/3Ms were
captured from the Germans, and were placed into the service of the
Civil Air Fleet, and after the war were placed into regular service
across the Soviet Union. Whilst civil operations in European Russia
west of the front line, which ran from Leningrad to Moscow to
Rostov-on-Don, were prevented from operating because of the war,
services from Moscow to the Urals, Siberia, Central Asia, and other
regions which were not affected by the war, continued. By the end
of the war, Aeroflot had flown 1,595,943 special missions,
including 83,782 at night, and carried 1,538,982 men and 122,027
tonnes (269,023,000 lb) of cargo.
After its introduction in 1954, the Ilyushin Il-14 operated on
Aeroflot´s All-Union services.
At the end of the war, the Soviet government went about
repairing and rebuilding essential airport infrastructure, and it
strengthened the Aeroflot units in the European part of the Soviet
Union. Aeroflot had by the end of 1945 carried 537,000 passengers,
compared with 359,000 in 1940.[8]:16 The government made it a
priority in the immediate postwar years to expand services from
Moscow to the capital of the Union republics, in addition to
important industrial centres on the country. To enable this, the
government transferred to Aeroflot a large number of Li-2s, and
they would become the backbone of the fleet.
The Ilyushin Il-12 entered service on Aeroflot´s all-Union
scheduled routes on 22 August 1947, and supplemented already
existing Li-2 services. The original Ilyushin Il-18 entered service
around the same time as the Il-12, and was operated on routes from
Moscow to Yakutsk, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Alma Ata, Tashkent,
Sochi, Mineralnye Vody and Tbilisi. By 1950 the Il-18 was withdrawn
from service, being replaced by Il-12s. MVL and general aviation
services received a boost in March 1948, when the first Antonov
An-2s were delivered and entered service in Central Russia.
Development of MVL services over latter years was attributed to the
An-2, which was operated by Aeroflot in all areas of the Soviet
Union.
Aeroflot´s route network had extended to 295,400 kilometres
(183,600 mi) by 1950, and it carried 1,603,700 passengers, 151,070
tonnes (333,050,000 lb) of freight and 30,580 tonnes (67,420,000
lb) of mail during the same year. Night flights began in the same
year, and the 5th Five-Year Plan, covering the period
1951–1955, emphasised Aeroflot expanding night-time
operations, which vastly improved aircraft utilisation. By 1952,
some 700 destinations around the Soviet Union received regular
flights from Aeroflot.[8]:20 On 30 November 1954, the Ilyushin
Il-14 entered service, and the aircraft took a leading role in the
operation of Aeroflot´s all-Union services. The number of
passengers carried in 1955 increased to 2,500,000, whilst freight
and mail carriage also increased, to 194,960 and 63,760 tons,
respectively. By this time, Aeroflot´s route network covered a
distance of some 321,500 kilometres (199,800 mi).
Aeroflot became the first airline in the world with sustained jet
aircraft service, when it introduced the Tupolev Tu-104 in
1956.
The 20th Communist Party Congress, held in 1956, saw plans for
Aeroflot services to be dramatically increased. The airline would
see its overall activities increased from its then current levels
by 3.8 times, and it was set the target of the carriage of
16,000,000 passengers by 1960. In order to meet these goals,
Aeroflot introduced higher capacity turbojet and turbine-prop
aircraft on key domestic routes, and on services to Aeroflot
destinations abroad. A major step for Aeroflot occurred on 15
September 1956 when the Tupolev Tu-104 jet airliner entered service
on the Moscow-Omsk-Irkutsk route, marking the world´s first
sustained jet airline service. The airline began international
flights with the type on 12 October 1956 under the command of Boris
Bugayev with flights from Moscow to Prague. The aircraft placed
Aeroflot in an envious position, as airlines in the West had
operated throughout the 1950s with large piston-engined aircraft.
By 1958 the route network covered 349,200 kilometres (217,000 mi),
and the airline carried 8,231,500 passengers, and 445,600 tons of
mail and freight, with fifteen percent of all-Union services being
operated by jet aircraft.
Aeroflot introduced the Antonov An-10 and Ilyushin Il-18 in
1959, and together with its existing jet aircraft, the airline was
able to extend services on modern aircraft to twenty one cities
during 1960. The Tupolev Tu-114, then the world´s largest airliner,
entered service with the Soviet carrier on 24 April 1961 on the
Moscow-Khabarovsk route; covering a distance of 6,980 kilometres
(4,340 mi) in 8 hours 20 minutes. The expansion of the Aeroflot
fleet saw services with modern aircraft being extended to forty one
cities in 1961, with fifty percent of all-Union services being
operated by these aircraft. This fleet expansion also saw the
number of passengers carried in 1961 skyrocketing to
21,800,000.
Aeroflot became the first airline to operate the first regional
jet, the Yakovlev Yak-40, in 1968.
Further expansion came in 1962 when both the Tupolev Tu-124 and
Antonov An-24 entered regular service with Aeroflot on various
medium and short-haul routes. By 1964, Aeroflot operated direct
flights from Moscow to 100 cities, from Leningrad to 44 cities, and
from Kiev to 38 cities. The airline also operated direct flights
from Mineralnyie Vody to 48 cities across the Soviet Union,
denoting the importance of the operation of holiday aircraft
services to Aeroflot.[8]:26 Statistics for the same year showed
Aerfolot operating an all-Union route network extending over
400,000 kilometres (250,000 mi), and carrying 36,800,000
passengers.
By 1966 Aeroflot carried 47,200,000 passengers over a domestic
route network of 474,600 kilometres (294,900 mi). For the period of
the 8th Five-Year Plan, which ran from 1966–1970, Aeroflot
carried a total of 302,200,000 passengers, 6.47 billion tons of
freight and 1.63 billion tons of mail. During the Five-Year Plan
period, all-Union services were extended over an additional 350
routes; an additional 1,000 MVL routes were begun, and 40 new
routes were opened up with all-cargo flights. The year 1967 saw the
introduction into service of the Ilyushin Il-62 and Tupolev Tu-134,
and in September 1968 the Yakovlev Yak-40 regional jet began
operations on short-haul services. By 1970, the last year of the
Five-Year Plan period, Aeroflot was operating flights to over 3,500
destinations in the Soviet Union, and at the height of the 1970
summer holidays season, the airline was carrying approximately
400,000 passengers per day, and some ninety percent of passengers
were being carried on propeller-turbine and jet aircraft.
In January 1971, the Central Administration of International Air
Traffic was established within the framework of IATA, and became
the sole enterprise authorised to operate international flights.
Abroad, the airline was known as Aeroflot Soviet Airlines. In 1976,
Aeroflot carried its 100 millionth passenger. Its flights were
mainly concentrated around the Soviet Union, but the airline also
had an international network covering five continents: North and
South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The network included
countries such as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain,
Cuba, Mexico and the People´s Republic of China. Since the 1970s
some transatlantic flights were flown using Shannon Airport in
Ireland as an intermediate stop, as it was the westernmost non-NATO
airport in Europe.
Aeroflot service between the Soviet Union and the United States
was interrupted from 15 September 1983 until 2 August 1990,
following an executive order by U.S. President Ronald Reagan,
revoking the Aeroflot´s license to operate flights into and out of
the United States following the downing of Korean Air Lines Flight
007 by the Soviet Air Force. At the start of the 1990s Aeroflot
reorganised again giving more autonomy to territorial divisions.
REG Davies, former curator of the Smithsonian Institution, claims
that by 1992 Aeroflot had over 600,000 people operating over 10,000
aircraft. 92,94 By 1967, Aeroflot amassed a fleet equal to that of
the largest American carriers combined.