Looking West: Transaero in the 90s

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union the various Aeroflot directorates splintered into a diverse array of obscure airlines operating the fragments of the Aeroflot fleet. One airline however started fresh becoming the first truly new scheduled airline in Russia. This was Transaero which would grow into one of the most important and respected airlines in the country with an unusually modern fleet and a fresh image.

Transaero Airlines was formed on December 28, 1990 as the first private airline approved for scheduled air services within Russia. Charter services began on November 5 1991 between Moscow and Tel Aviv. Their first equipment even still had the CCCP Soviet prefix. They leased TU-154s and other Soviet era equipment from the Air Force and Aeroflot itself but their first actual aircraft was a new 1990 build Ilyushin Il-86, which became RA-86123, in July 1992 when the CCCP prefix was consigned to the dustbin of history. A second IL-86 was also acquired (RA-86124) but this aircraft was sold to Aeroflot by 1994 leaving only the sole widebody in the fleet. RA-86123 was christened as 'Moskva' in honour of the airline's home city and operating base of Moscow Sheremetyevo.

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Scheduled domestic services began in January 1993 and by the end of the year it was operating scheduled international flights to Tel-Aviv. This was a flavour of the airline's future in which widebody international services to Mediterranean hotspots would feature heavily. Unlike its contemporaries Transaero had its eye on being a truly modern airline with western not ex-Soviet equipment. In March 1993 it was able to acquire a pair of Boeing 737-2C9s on lease (both ex-Luxair frames), which became RA-73000 and RA-73001 at a time when Western aircraft inside Russia were almost unheard of.

A further trio of 737-200s (all ex-British Airways aircraft) were registered in Latvia and operated in conjunction with the Latvian charter airline Riga Airlines (RiAir). Even more impressively Transaero leased in new Boeing 757s from April 1994. Leased from GPA EI-CJX and CJY were joined in 1995 by three further Irish registered aircraft leased from ILFC (EI-CLM, CLU, CLV). In 1995 Transaero started the first frequent flyer programme in Russia and was proving a strong competitor to the ailing Aeroflot.

By 1996 Transaero had its eye on long haul routes to the USA and once again turned to the West for equipment. Three former American Airlines DC-10-30s were acquired, on lease from Finavion leasing, for this intercontinental expansion, opening routes to Los Angeles in July 1996 followed by Orlando and Chicago. The DC-10s though assigned Russian registrations initially of RA-46712-714 in the end kept their old AA regos of N140AA-N142AA.

N141AA was originally N82NA with National and later became 'Clipper Aurora' with Pan Am until her sale to American in 1984. Following service with Transaero she joined Hawaiian on lease until 2003, when she had a total time of 90,462 hours and 19,608 landings. Subsequently she became 9G-ANE with Ghana Airways, but her service was very short due to corrosion issues and she was grounded in July 2004 and gradually scrapped at Marana from 2006.

Despite the arrival of Boeing 757s and DC-10s the young Il-86 was kept in the frontline fleet. In fact in 1997 RA-86123 gained a special livery to celebrate the 850th anniversary of Moscow. The 5 was emblazoned in red to also markout 5 years of IL-86 operations.

Transaero Ilyushin IL-86 RA-86123 JC Wings 1:400 Scale Model Airliner

Unfortunately for the fledgling airline on August 17, 1998 the entire Russian economy was hit by what became known as the Ruble crisis, which led to a catastrophic devaluation of the currency and Russia defaulting on its debt. The impact on the economy was massive and affected air travel correspondingly. Worse as Transaero's fleet was predominantly leased from Western lessors the devaluation of the Ruble had a heavy impact on the cost of the aircraft the airline was flying.

Initially operations were not too badly affected. The airline operated 18,729 scheduled flights in 1998 carrying 1,285,000 passengers, which was only a 5% decline on 1997. At the same time, the number of passengers on the routes between Moscow and Berlin, Tel Aviv, Frankfurt, Astana, Kiev, Kishinev, Tashkent, and Odessa actually increased.

The airline achieved other notable milestones in 1998. It opened a new route between Moscow and London and also became the first airline in Russia to operate the 737NG when a pair of 737-700s were leased from BIAL in April and June respectively registered N100UN and N101UN. It also became the first airline to operate the cross-polar flight connecting Moscow-Krasnoyarsk-Toronto-Newark.

Despite this Transaero was hurting and shrunk its network to 24 destinations in 1999. It attempted to save money by code-sharing with Kras Air, restructuring its debt, cutting staff from 2,600 to 2,000 and returning aircraft. In truth it had never been profitable losing $83 million in 1997 before the crisis began. In July 1998 the fleet had stood at 17 aircraft (1 IL-86, 3 DC-10s, 5 757s, 1 767-300, 5 737-200s and 2 737-700s) but by the end of the year the axe had begun to swing. The intercontinental routes were axed and the DC-10s returned as were all the 757s and the sole 767.

In March 1999 the airline suffered the indignity of having one of its 737-700s impounded at Gatwick for failure to pay air-traffic control fees. It had already had to suspend its alliance with RiAir in January when Riga Airlines suspended operations. Fortunately despite its weakened state Transaero was able to survive the crisis, no doubt in part because the Russian economy managed to show an impressive fortitude and rapidly rising fuel prices assisted Russia in posting a large trade surplus in 1999 and 2000.

It would enter the 2000s looking for new opportunities and new aircraft. The year 2000 would also mark the end of IL-86 operations. RA-86123 was leased to VASO Airlines and was with Atlant Soyuz by 2005. Retired by July 2009 she was broken up at Vnukovo in 2011.

References

2004. Kmoissarov, D & Gordon, Y. Russian Airlines and their Aircraft. Midland Press
Kenyon, J. 1999. Transaero Jet Under Arrest for Debts. The Moscow Times
1999, May. Transaero Airlines: 1998 Main Results and 1999 Prospects and Tasks. PRNewswire
1998 Russian Financial Crisis, Wikipedia