With their help, the company will enter the air cargo market
According to Izvestia, citing sources in the industry, the Red Wings airline, controlled by Rostec, intends to buy the cargo air carrier Sky Gates Airlines.
At one time, Sky Gates occupied the third place in the cargo transportation market in Russia after AirBridgeCargo and Aeroflot, but in 2022 two cargo Boeing 747s were confiscated from it abroad – now only one Il-96-400T remains. After that, the Federal Air Transport Agency froze the air operator’s certificate of this airline, but now it has been restored. Red Wings can either buy the entire Sky Gates or its AOC.
Red Wings will start flying on Il-76 and Il-96
Now there is only one Il-76 in the Sky Gates fleet, but they plan to supply two restored Il-96-400Ts to this company, which were previously intended for another cargo carrier. The carrier also plans to operate Tu-204/214 aircraft in the cargo version.
“ They want to speed up and simplify the process of starting flights. In general, I see the meaning of this deal in the fact that Rostec, as the ultimate owner of Red Wings, is actively using this airline as an operator of its own products – UAC aircraft. In fact, the state corporation is acquiring its own transport, cargo transportation company in order to use its assets more flexibly , ”Roman Gusarov, editor-in-chief of the Avia.ru portal, commented on the situation.
