OREANDA-NEWS. On 23 April 2008 was announced, that Vladivostok Avia, one of the leading air carrier’s of Russia’s Far East, had completed replacement of the aircraft type on services it operates out of Vnukovo International to the cities of Sochi, Kemerovo and Vladivostok, when [the latter is] served via Abakan. These routes will henceforward be operated with the A-320 as standard equipment instead of the Tupolev-154 mid-range trijets used previously. The next logical step the carrier is contemplating will be a similar equipment and service level upgrade on its route linking Vnukovo with the City of Novokuznetsk.

The A-320 jetliners offer improved performance and economics and, most significantly, the smallest noise footprint among the jets of this category. The twinjet seats 150 passengers in a standard 12 business + 138 coach cabin layout. The air-conditioned passenger cabin features comfortable seats each complete with a personal in-flight entertainment system.

Apart from other AC types, the carrier’s fleet currently comprises a total of three A-320s, operated on a number of routes and gradually replacing the Tu-154 type as standard equipment on the carrier’s network. The Vladivostok Avia routes to Niigata, Harbin, Seoul, Bangkok, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Irkutsk, among others, are also served with the A-320 as standard equipment. The carrier has near-future plans of introducing the new twinjet on its services to Krasnodar, Novosibirsk and Anchorage, Alaska, served via Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and originating from its Vladivostok home base. Furthermore, the carrier’s first-ever European service to Frankfurt-Hahn will also be operated using the A-320 jetliners.