| Airline: | Saratov Airlines |
| Fleet Size: | 8 |
| Destinations: | 21 |
| Iata: | 6W |
| Icao: | SOV |
| Callsign: | SARATOV AIR |
| Founded: | 1931 (as Saratov Air Enterprise of Aeroflot) |
| Ceased: | 30 May 2018 |
| Headquarters: | Saratov, Russia |
| Key People: | Alexei Vakhromeev, Director |
| Hubs: | |
| Focus Cities: | |
| Website: | saratovairlines.ru |
Saratov Airlines (Saratov Airlines Joint Stock Company, Russian: Саратовские авиалинии, Saratovskiye avialinii) was a Russian airline headquartered in Saratov and based at Saratov Tsentralny Airport. The company ceased operating on 30 May 2018 after the Russian aviation authority refused to renew its operating certificate.
Saratov Airlines was founded in 1931. It was called "Saratov United Air Squad" and was a part of Aeroflot. Until late 2013 the airline was branded Saravia (Russian: Саравиа).[1]
In December 2013, Saratov Airlines became the first Russian operator of Embraer E-Jets, with the arrival of two Embraer 195 aircraft.[2]
On 14 October 2015, the Russian aviation authorities sanctioned Saratov Airlines after a violation of security rules. The airline was therefore no longer allowed to operate flights to destinations outside of Russia from 26 October 2015.[3] However, by May 2016 the airline had resumed international charter services.
In July 2017, it was announced that the airline had signed a letter of intent to lease six Irkut MC-21-300s at the MAKS Air Show in Moscow scheduled to be delivered from 2022–2025.[4]
On 20 March 2018, the Russian Ministry of Transport ordered the suspension of all Saratov Airline flights following the investigation into the Saratov Airlines Flight 703 crash.[5] The airline responded with a message on its website stating that it "continues to carry out flights on Embraer-190 and Yak-42 aircraft".[6] Later in the day it emerged that the Ministry of Transport had shortened the period of validity of the airline's operating certificate to 27 April 2018.[7] On 2 April the Russian aviation authority called on the airline to voluntarily cease operating due to its management's "unprecedented and irresponsible" attitude towards ensuring the safety of passengers and crew.[8] One of the reasons for this reaction was the airline's submission of a list of current planes and crew which included the aircraft that crashed and crew members who died in February.
On 10 April 2018, it was announced that Saratov Airlines planned to re-brand itself as Ivolga Airlines. The reasons for this action are various: some experts say this is due to the air crash that occurred in February, by taking the idea from S7 Airlines and Nordavia, that re-branded after air crashes in 2006 and 2009, respectively; some experts say that it is because the airline now flies from hubs other than Saratov, such as Moscow-Domodedovo and Krasnoyarsk-Yemelyanovo.[9] However, the envisioned rebranding never took place.
On 17 May 2018, the Russian aviation authority ordered the airline to stop selling tickets by the end of May.[10] Initially, the company stated that it would permanently cease operations on 31 May.[11] However, later it removed this information from its website, resumed selling tickets, and told the media that it expects its operating certificate to be re-issued no later than 27 May.[12] This however, did not happen and the airline ceased all flights and ticket sales on 30 May 2018.[13] The airline continues to operate the only airport in the Saratov Oblast.
As of May 2018, Saratov Airlines operated the following domestic scheduled and international charter passenger flights:[14]
As of May 2018, shortly before Saratov Airlines ceased operations, the fleet included the following aircraft:[20]
| Aircraft | In Service | Orders | Passengers | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | Y | Total | |||||
| Antonov An-148-100 | 1 | — | — | 83 | 83 | leased from Rossiya Airlines[21] and grounded[22] | |
| Boeing 737-800 | — | 1 | TBA | was planned to be leased from GECAS and to be delivered in 2019[23] [24] | |||
| Embraer 195 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 104 | 114 | Two operated at closure, two further deliveries received in April and May 2018 but never taken into service[25] | |
| Yakovlev Yak-42 | 5 | — | 16 | 84 | 100 | were to be phased out by August 2019[26] [27] | |
| — | 120 | 120 | |||||
| Total | 8 | 3 | |||||
See main article: Saratov Airlines Flight 703. On 11 February 2018, Saratov Airlines flight 703, disappeared from radar and crashed less than ten minutes after takeoff.[28] The flight, operated using an An-148 and scheduled to depart from Moscow's Domodedovo airport to the Russian city of Orsk, had 71 people on board; 65 passengers and six crew members.[29] The crash occurred near the village of Stepanovskoye about 50 miles southeast of Moscow.[30] No one on board survived the plane crash.