On August 6, Ural Airlines took delivery of its first A320neo. The Russian airline is expecting to receive 2 more aircraft of the type by the end of 2019. The Airbus A320neo comes from the leasing company CDB Aviation — a wholly owned Irish subsidiary of China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co., Limited. Ural Airlines’ A320neo features a two-class cabin layout — with eight seats in business class and one hundred and sixty-eight in economy. These Airbus aircraft are the first in Russia to be powered by CFM International LEAP-1А engines.

The Yekaterinburg-based Ural Airlines will operate the aircraft on domestic and international routes. “The Airbus A320neo is expected to support the expansion plans of Ural Airlines’ fleet and will be deployed on its growing flight network, with a planned increase in operations between Moscow’s Domodedovo and Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo international airports and destinations throughout Europe and to China”, specifies CDB Aviation.

Olga Tushkova, Head of PR Projects at Ural Airlines, comments this first lease agreement between the two companies: “We are very pleased and inspired about the start of our cooperation with CDB Aviation in terms of the program for the planned increase of Ural Airlines’ fleet. The delivery of the first Airbus A320neo equipped with the latest LEAP-1A engine is an outstanding event for our company that will allow us to increase the efficiency of our core business – carriage of passengers.”

Since its entry into commercial service in 2006, Ural Airlines operates a fleet composed solely of Airbus aircraft. The fleet encompasses forty-five A320 Family aircraft (24 A320s, 16 A321s, and 5 A319s). However, the Russian airline eventually planned to include Boeing 737 MAX 8 in its fleet.