Krasnodar first airport to welcome Pobeda’s B737-800 with livery for medical workers

During this crisis, a cake to celebrate the arrival of an aircraft with its nose covered by a mask sounds more than a good idea to the anna.aero team.

On 3 June, Pobeda, Aeroflot’s low-cost subsidiary, flew a B737-800 to Krasnodar.  Nothing unusual about this: the carrier serves Krasnodar and indeed began at the airport back in 2015, the year the airline began operating.

What was different, though, was it had a special livery – a mask on its nose, together with the message ‘thanks to the heroes in white coats’ on the side – dedicated to medical workers.   

A timely reminder too

Krasnodar was the first destination for this new-liveried aircraft, which also serves as a reminder that Pobeda expects passengers to wear masks and gloves while aboard.

Dmitry Kirichenko, Managing Director of Krasnodar International Airport, said:

“We are proud that for such a first symbolic flight, Pobeda has chosen Krasnodar, the city where the airport, together with regional authorities and partner airlines, is doing its utmost to prevent the spread of the virus. For us, such a flight is another reason to remind the residents of Russia of the importance of doctors in our lives and the mandatory observance of sanitary safety rules.”

Seat capacity up by a strong CAGR of 7.5% 

In 2019, Krasnodar had 5.4 million seats, up by a CAGR of 7.5% since 2010.

It had 72 routes last year. With 2.7 million seats, Moscow was – of course – by far number-one.

Aeroflot itself was the airport’s leading operator with over 1.1 million seats, with S7 second-placed with 740,000.  UTair was third with 660,000 seats, while Pobeda was fourth with 576,000.

Krasnodar’s seat capacity increased by 55% between 2015 and 2019.  This was the result of multiple airlines growing, especially S7, Nord Wind, Pobeda, and Ural Airlines.