OREANDA-NEWS. On June 16, 2007 the S7 group of companies on behalf of S7 Airlines signed the contract with Airbus for the delivery of 25 new A320 airplanes, reported the press-centre of  S7.

The contracting parties announced this at the International Aerospace Show in Le Bourget. (Salon International de l'Aeronautique et de l'Espace, Paris-Le Bourget). The value of this deal - by catalog pricing - is more than 1.6 billion USD.

The planes were purchased as part of the airline's seven year strategic plan for radical renovation of their air fleet. The new A320’s, when they enter service, will replace the Tu-154M’s on medium-haul flights. By 2012, when all airplanes manufactured in the USSR will be taken out of service, S7 plans to operate no less than 50 aircraft from this modern narrow-bodied Airbus plane family, including up to 35 of the А320 airplanes, the flagship of this family.

”This plane is the best choice for servicing most S7 Airlines routes”, said Vladislav Filev, managing director of Siberia Airlines, JSC. – “The new A320 will become a reliable basis for airline's main fleet".

”S7 Airlines is one of the major customers of Airbus in Russia, and the credibility of A320 - our most successful in its class airplane, means a lot to us”, mentioned John Leahy, Airbus customer care executive officer. “We are sure that with this plane S7 will manage to realize its growth strategy with maximum success."

The ordered aircraft are equipped with CFM56 engines produced by CFM International and have a spacious and comfortable two class cabin arrangement designed to accommodate 160 passengers.

The А320 airplane is designed to provide optimum profitability by combining wide range of cabin configurations and providing passengers with high level of comfort. Of all the narrow-bodied planes in use only the A320 aircraft are equipped with the latest electro-remote control systems. Thanks to modern design and low fuel consumption, airplanes of this family provide savings in all direct operating costs.

А318, А319 and А321 aircraft are also the part of this family. All these airplanes are characterized by the similarity of handling characteristics and crew cabin arrangements, which allows pilots to navigate different types of airplanes of this family group and allows ground handling operations to be performed by the same personnel for all aircraft of this class.

At the present time there are 8 А319 planes flying under the flag of S7 Airlines. In the first half of 2008 the S7 Airlines fleet will be supplemented by four new A320 planes which will be provided to the company on an operational lease contract with ILFC. The short-range plans of the airline include signing leasing contracts for the operation of 9 more main aircraft of A320 family. These airplanes are expected to join the S7 Airlines fleet by the end of 2007.