Aeroflot subsidiary Nordavia lost millions of Euros on its operation last year. Aeroflot has for long time been in negotiations with several potential buyers, and today Kommersant reports that a deal was completed on Wednesday with Norilsk-Nickel.
Read also: Norilsk Nickel buys Nordavia airline company
Nordavia is the successor of Aeroflot Nord that was the successor of Arkhangelsk airlines. In addition to its many domestic flights, mainly in northwest-Russia, the airliner operates cross-border flights in the Barents Region, from Murmansk to Tromsø and Helsinki.
The flights to Tromsø got a bad reputation in recent years after a flight attendant onboard Aeroflot Nord’s flight from Murmansk to Tromsø was arrested by Norwegian police shortly after landing. She was nearby too drunk to stand and was reported to the police because she spoiled coffee on the passengers. Blood test taken shortly after proved large concentrations of alcohol.
Sources in Nordavia that BarentsObserver has talked to says it is likely that the old and noisy An-24 propellar that for the last two decades has operated the route Arkhangelsk-Murmansk-Tromsø will be replaced with a modern aircraft as soon as the handover to another company is in place.
Nordavia operates a fleet of 15 Boeing 737 and four AN-24 aircrafts.
Norilsk-Nickel gets the airliner for €146 million, minus €141 million that is the company’s debt, so the real price Aeroflot gets for the airliner is only €5 million, according to an Aeroflot source talking to Kommersant today.
Taimyr Airline, owned by Norilsk-Nickel, recently took delivery of the first of four new ATR-42 aircraft that will replace the current fleet of AN-24 aircrafts operated by Taimyr Airlines. Nothing is so far said about which aircrafts that will replace the AN-24 on the Barents flights between Russia and Norway and Finland.
Norilsk Nickel has not disclosed its strategy with purchasing Nordavia but sources says to Kommersant that it is likely Nordavia will be merged with Taimyr Airlines. A merged company may become one of Russian top 10 airlines, the paper reports.
