UTair (UT, Khanty-Mansiysk) is planning to sell off its fleet of twelve A321-200s with talks currently being held with an interested third party CEO Andrey Martirosov has said. The aircraft, delivered between 2013 and 2014, have already been withdrawn from service.
In an interview with Russia's TASS news agency at the just ended Second National Airport Infrastructure Show and Civil Aviation, Martirosov said his airline is currently in talks with Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) to postpone the delivery of the remaining eight A321s it ordered as part of 2012 deal for twenty of the type.
With demand falling by 30% on the back of a weakening Russian economy, UTair Group last year announced it would ground 40% of its fleet this year in a bid to cut up to RUB6.5 billion in costs.
According to an investor prospectus published in conjunction with Raiffeisen Bank in December last year, the group will retire six B737-800s, all fifteen of its CRJ200s and six SSJ 100/95s at UTair-Express (Syktyvkar) from its scheduled services fleet. Though retired from scheduled operations, eleven B757-200s will be retained for use on charter services with subsidiary Azur Air (ZF, Krasnoyarsk Yemelyanovo) instead.
