newstodate.aero

Sep 28, 2021 (newstodate): Russia will soon see the launch of a new LCC - Citrus.
   Citrus will be established as the low-cost subsidiary of the  privately-owned aviation holding company S7 Sibir Airlines and will start out with a fleet of four Airbus A320neo aircraft, already signed, with plans for growing by another six to eight aircraft annually over the first three years of operation, to over 20 aircraft in 2024, if plans hold..
   The business plan of the coming new airline builds on offering low-cost flights out of and between airports in Russia, bypassing the airports at Moscow and St Petersburg that today are unwanted, but necessary transit destinations on most of the domestic flights in Russia.
   In 2018 for instance, some 85 percent of all domestic Aeroflot flights in Russia transferred through Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport, generating overly long total travel times and increasing congestion in the Moscow region.
   Citrus plans to launch flights from July 2022 - and by the way the name refers not to a sour fruit, but means "Cities of Russia"!
   Today, Russia's only low-cost carrier and member of the Aeroflot Group Pobeda received its AOC on November 11, 2014, and performed its maiden flight on December 1, 2014.
   Russia's first LCC, Sky Express performed its first flight on January 29, 2007, but folded its wings in bankruptcy already on October 29, 2011, as was also the fate of another attempt by Avianova that went bust 20 days earlier.