AiRUnion
Launch date2005
Full members5
Destination airports134
Destination countries13
Annual passengers (M)4
Fleet size100
Management
  • Boris Abramovich (CEO)
  • Alexander Abramovich (President)
Websiteairunion.ru

AiRUnion was a Russian airline alliance. It was the first airline alliance ever established in Russia. Member airlines and their affiliates enjoyed a high degree of co-operation in scheduling, ticketing, code sharing, flight transfer operations, frequent flyer program benefits, shared airport lounges, reducing costs, and sharing best practices. The airline and member carriers have since gone bankrupt in 2008. With government sponsorship, the alliance was planned to be resurrected as Rossiya as of 2008.[1] However, this never took place.

History

This alliance was established as AirBridge. In October 2004 Russian airlines KrasAir and Domodedovo Airlines set up a joint management company called AirBridge. KrasAir is owned by the city government of Krasnoyarsk (51%) and AirBridge management (49%) (Boris Abramovich - CEO and his brother, Alexander Abramovich - deputy CEO, no relation to Roman Abramovich). While retaining separate legal identities the airlines were planning to integrate their networks and services, as they are largely complementary. In April 2007 AirBridge had purchased Malév airline from Hungarian government. Boris Abramovich is also a CEO of AirUnion alliance.

The Abramovich brothers' aggressive expansion campaign led to the creation of AiRUnion alliance in 2005, the first airline alliance in Russia. It included KrasAir, Domodedovo Airlines, Omskavia, Samara Airlines and Sibaviatrans. On May 3, 2007 the five members of the AirUnion alliance were rolled into a similarly named holding company, OAO AirUnion, in which the Russian government holds no less than 45% of the shares.[2]

Although Malév was a Oneworld member, in early 2007 AiRUnion began a codeshare with Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa in its strategic expansion into European routes.[3]

AiRUnion was competing with S7 Airlines to become the second largest domestic carrier in Russia in 2007, after Aeroflot. AiRUnion carried 4.9 million passengers in 2006 compared to 8.75 million for Aeroflot.[4]

Member airlines

EI-CBQ Boeing 737
KrasAir Tupolev Tu-154M in AiRUnion colors
Airline
Russia Domodedovo Airlines
Russia KrasAir
Russia Omskavia
Russia Samara Airlines
Russia Sibaviatrans

Premium status

AiRUnion had one premium level, Premium, based on a customer's tier status in a frequent flyer program. Each member and regional airline recognized AiRUnion Premium status, with only a few exceptions, mainly pertaining to airport lounge access. Status has no specific requirements; membership is based solely on the frequent flyer programs of individual member airlines. Benefits of AiRUnion Premium membership included free tickets, transportation of additional luggage and discounts of alliance program participants.

Destinations

Russia

Asia

Central Asia

East Asia

Southeast Asia

Southwest Asia

Europe

References

  1. ↑ "In Brief: Europe". www.flightglobal.com. Archived from the original on 2011-05-20.
  2. ↑ Putin OKs 5-Way Merger of Airlines - International Business Times
  3. ↑ Aeroflot’s competitor becomes strategic partner of Lufthansa :: Russia-InfoCentre
  4. ↑ "Lufthansa has partnership with Russian Airline AirUnion". Archived from the original on 2007-11-18. Retrieved 2007-10-31.

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