Red Wings Airlines

Old Red Wings Airlines logo 2008–2018

Former Airline 400 Tupolev Tu-154

Former Red Wings Airlines Tupolev Tu-204-100

Red Wings was founded in 1999 under the name VARZ-400, after the Russian acronym of the Vnukovo Avia Repair Factory. It was renamed Airlines 400 in 2001, before adopting its current name in 2007.

The airline was owned by Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev, who wanted to create a discount airline using modern Russian Tupolev Tu-204-100B 210-passenger twin-jet airliners, both newly built and used. The company had a fleet of ten Tu-204-100Bs (an eleventh Tu-204 was written off after crashing at Vnukovo International Airport on 29 December 2012), and had also sought to acquire Airbus A320s and possibly Airbus A321s to complement its Tu-204 fleet.[2]

Lebedev also owned 49% of German charter airline Blue Wings, which was to become Red Wings's sister company. However, on 13 January 2010, Blue Wings ceased all operations and filed for bankruptcy, citing the global financial crisis for a pull-out of investors.[3]

After the December 2012 Red Wings Flight 9268 crash in Vnukovo, Russian aviation authorities initiated an emergency check of airline operational activities and fleet maintenance, resulting in the revocation of the carrier's AOC effective on 4 February 2013. The airline had ceased all operations the day before and owner Alexander Lebedev announced that no return to operation was planned.[4][5]

On 4 April 2013, NRC sold Red Wings Airlines Group "Guta" for a symbolic one ruble (in this case, leased aircraft remained with the lessor NRC-owned company "Ilyushin Finance"). The new owners of Red Wings plan to increase the fleet of 10–15 aircraft. The airline was going to buy just Russian aircraft. On 25 April 2013, it was announced that the airline Red Wings was going to be headed by Sergey Belov—the previous CEO of the airline "Russia". On 18 June 2013, the Federal Air Transport Agency renewed the certificate of the operator Red Wings to perform commercial transportation of passengers and cargo. On 22 June, the airline resumed charter flights. On 12 July, the airline resumed scheduled flights from Moscow.

To increase business power, Red Wings and Nordavia decided to merge. The process already began, alas the date when the airlines will fully merged, and will they be separate or work under one airline, is still a question. This plan calls for the Airbus A320, which initially was ordered for Nordavia, to be delivered by Red Wings. The new brand name will be known, after finishing the merger procedure.[6]

On 20 September 2018, it was announced that Red Wings will re-brand. The first aircraft to arrive with the updated livery, will be Airbus A321 and it will arrive by the end of 2018.[7]

Red Wings Airlines Airbus A321 wearing a new livery

Red Wings Airlines Airbus A320

The Red Wings fleet comprises the following aircraft as of January 2021:[9][10]

Red Wings was supposed to be the launch customer for the Airbus A220-300 in Russia; however, in March 2019, the airline scrapped plans to operate the type in favour of the Irkut MC-21.

• On 29 December 2012 at 16:35 local time (12:35 GMT), Red Wings Airlines Flight 9268, a Tupolev TU-204-100В (Registration: RA-64047, c/n: 1450743164047, s/n: 047, built: 2008) crashed on landing after overrunning runway 19 at Vnukovo International Airport (VKO) following a non-revenue repositioning flight originating from Pardubice Airport, Czech Republic. The aircraft broke up and came to a stop on elevated highway M3 about 400 meters/1,200 feet past the runway's end. There were eight crew members on board of whom five were killed and the other three seriously injured.[15][16] The fatal Vnukovo accident was the second runway overrun incident involving a Red Wings operated TU-204-100B in nine days following a Moscow Vnukovo to Novosibirsk flight on 20 December 2012 that overran runway 25 at Tolmachevo Airport by 1,150 feet (350 meters) into an open field.[17] Initial flight data recorder readouts indicate that brake failure as well as engine thrust reverser issues were major contributing causes in both overruns resulting in the issuance of additional airworthiness directives.[18][19][20][21] Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) later determined that, as in the precursor non-fatal overrun incident in Novosibirsk, the fatal Moscow accident was caused by a failure of the compression switches in two of the three landing gear assemblies to close on touchdown thus causing the engine thrust reverser shells to fail to deploy.[22]
• On 22 August 2018, one of the Aviadvigatel PS-90 engines of a Red Wings Tu-204 operating flight WZ808 from Ufa to Sochi experienced an engine surge during takeoff from Ufa International Airport and subsequently caught on fire. The crew did not receive any fire indications, the automatic fire suppression system did not work, and the manual fire suppression failed to fully extinguish the flames. Emergency services put out the fire after landing while the passengers were evacuated through the right hand emergency doors via slides. There were no injuries. A Rosaviatsia (Russia's Civil Aviation Authority) commission has been set up to investigate the occurrence.[23]

Media related to Red Wings Airlines at Wikimedia Commons

• Red Wings Official website
• Official website of Air 400 (Archive)
• Red Wings Airlines aircraft