Until a few years ago, the “low-cost airline” business model was downright frowned upon in the Russian Federation. Aeroflot brought the first low-cost food to the market with Dobrolet, but this was a huge blow and lasted less than a year on the market. The successor was given the rather prepotential name "Pobeda", Russian for "victory".

Dobrolet had to cease operations due to sanctions imposed by the EU and the United States of America. These prohibited citizens and companies from doing business with the Aeroflot offshoot. The young company quickly got rid of the leasing fleet. The successor was given the name "Pobeda", probably also because the establishment of the new company enabled the sanctions to be avoided.

Due to the Corona crisis, more and more Russian aviation companies are coming up with the idea of ​​transforming themselves into low-cost or even ultra-low-cost. Most recently this announced, among other things Utair at. Smartavia has now confirmed to the Russian news agency Interfax that it will also transform itself into the low-cost airline.

Deputy CEO Denis Pomerantsev told Interfax that management believes that only a low-cost business model will be able to survive the next three to four years. Summer 2020 would not have gone so badly, but since October 2020 the number of passengers has fallen again very sharply. Now you want to keep flight operations to a minimum and thus save costs.

In the warm season of the coming year, Smartavia wants to stir up the Russian market with an aggressive pricing strategy. The necessary steps have already been taken. Pomerantsev points out that food and drinks are chargeable, that only economy class is offered and that costs are being saved everywhere. Of course, the manager also points out that the luggage has already been paid for and flexible standard tickets are a thing of the past.

The deputy head of Smartavia suspects that the lion's share of the population of the Russian Federation will have less money at their disposal in the next few years. Therefore, as a full-service carrier, one can no longer survive, but has to adapt to the circumstances and offer it as cheaply as possible.

By the way, Smartavia has already undergone numerous name changes. In 1991 one emerged from a regional division of the Soviet Aeroflot. At first the name was quite bulky "Archangelskije Vosduschnyje Linii". This became “Aeroflot-Nord” in 2004, but after an accident in 2008, the then daughter was banned from using the name. This is how they invented “Nordavia”. Aeroflot separated completely in 2011 and sold to the Norilsk Nickel group. Since March 2019 one has been in the air under the new name "Smartavia".