OREANDA-NEWS. January 23, 2009. S7 Airlines, Russia’s largest air carrier by number of passengers on domestic routes, announces that it will begin operating flights between Novosibirsk and Norilsk on a modern Airbus A320 airliner beginning February 4, 2009. The company had previously flown Soviet-made Tu-154 airplanes on this route, reported the press-centre of S7 Airlines.

In addition, the S7 Airlines flight on this route will now be operated year-round, not just during summertime as it was previously.

The resumption of S7 Airlines flights to and from Norilsk became possible after the Norilsk airport in late December 2008 obtained a permit to accept and service Airbus A320 airplanes. As a result of large-scale modernization of the S7 Airlines fleet, the airline has been operating flights only on comfortable and economical Airbus and Boeing airliners since November 2008.

The Airbus A320 airplanes used by S7 Airlines were acquired in 2008 directly from the manufacturing plant in France.

The Airbus A320-200 airliner is a modern, narrow-bodied airplane that seats 164 passengers, with eight business-class and 156 economy-class seats. Every new airplane has a spacious seating arrangement with a new seat design and interior in bright tones. These airplanes have more spacious overhead bins, which creates additional comfort for passengers and reduces boarding and deplaning times.

There are currently four airplanes of this type in the airline’s fleet. Deliveries of 25 more new airliners of the A320 family will begin in 2009.