Aeroflot confirms purchase of Lebedev's stake, updates on fleet upgrades

Aeroflot announced (26-Jan-2010) details of its Board meeting, chaired by Russian Transport Minister, Igor Levitin:

• Investment: The Board considered the deal structure of Aeroflot-Finance purchasing 25.8% of Aeroflot stock from Alexander Lebedev's NRK Group;
• Fleet: In 2009, the company withdrew Tu-154s from service, and successfully added new A330s. Due to the "mass replenishment" of Aeroflot's fleet with new aircraft, the company employed 213 more captains and 226 co-pilots, and retrained 343 pilots for new aircraft types. The total amount of newly employed pilots increased by 260 compared to 2008;
• Flight safety: In 2009, aircraft safety factor reached 99.967%, which is 0.012% higher than in 2008, owing to significantly fewer incidents and zero number of accidents.
• IT: The Board approved the provision by Aeroflot of IT services to enable seamless operation of Sheremetyevo Terminal D. [more]