Belavia options augmented by the new Embraer-195LR, making it the 23rd plane in the airline’s fleet
“For the first time in many years, a new plane from the manufacturing plant is being purchased by our Republic,” noted Anatoly Gusarov, Director General of Belavia Airline Company JSC, at the action dedicated to arrival of another aerial vehicle. He said that Embraer-195LR, for both economy and business class, is optimised for the transport of 107 passengers.
“We are already using two Embraer planes, so we have some operating experience, learned passengers’ attitude towards them and made sure that the characteristics of these aerial vehicles are the most positive,” said the head of the enterprise. He added that the second Embraer-195LR will also arrive in Minsk. The development Bank of Belarus has supplied credit to the amount of $52m for 10 years, to purchase two new planes for Belavia.
At the end of January of 2014, Belavia began to work as an open joint stock company. It is the biggest Belarusian airline company, as well as the leading freight carrier. It is based at the National Airport in Minsk and makes regular flights to 43 airports in Europe and Asia.
One good thing is that the purchase of new planes will not lead to an increase in ticket prices. That fact has been also noted by Mr. Gusarov.
“The older planes require more attention in terms of maintenance of their air worthiness and big expense on the purchasing of repair parts and utilities. The new plane is expensive, but it is less costly in terms of fuel,” noted the head of the air company. He said that the last point is the most important because fuel costs about 30 percent of all expenses of aviation operations.
Mr. Gusarov said that in the near future Belavia plans to combine the purchases of second-hand and new planes. “It is a practice of all airline companies,” he explained. For example, for this summer, two used Boeing-737/300 are planned to be leased. “Because of the situation in Ukraine, the number of flight requests to Bulgaria during the summer period has increased significantly,” noted the head of the airline company. The air company intends to solve this problem with the help of these new planes.
