Aeroflot (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo) will not acquire any more jets beyond the current twelve B737-800s it has on order from Boeing (BOE, Washington National) until Russia further liberalizes the country's air-carriage rules. Aeroflot (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo) Chief Executive Officer, Vitaly Savelyev, told Bloomberg news last week that existing restrictions would not allow his airline's LCC subsidiary, Dobrolet (Moscow Sheremetyevo), to compete efficiently with the likes of Ryanair (FR, Dublin International), Wizz Air (W6, Budapest) and easyJet (London Luton).

“Ryanair is the model, but we can’t compete on price without legislation,” Savelyev said.

Under current restrictions, Dobrolet is only able to undercut Aeroflot by 20% but this would increase to between 40 and 60% with further liberalization and a dedicated discount terminal.

The CEO also unveiled plans to develop Zhukovsky into a London Stansted-esque hub for Dobrolet's operations as its existing hub, Moscow Sheremetyevo, was proving too costly. The move mirrors a similar initiative being undertaken by rival, UTair (UT, Khanty-Mansiysk), to develop Yermolino into its own low-cost hub by 2018.