Azimuth (russian: АО «АЗИМУТ», translit=, link=no, branding itself as

azimuth An azimuth (; from ar, اَلسُّمُوت, as-sumūt, the directions) is an angular measurement in a spherical coordinate system. More specifically, it is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north. Mathematical ...

) is a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

joint-stock company

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

based in

Platov International Airport Platov International Airport (russian: Международный аэропорт Платов) is an airport close to the stanitsa of Grushevskaya, Aksaysky District, Rostov Oblast, Russia near the city of Novocherkassk northeast of Rostov-on ...

in Rostov-on-Don, the capital of Rostov Oblast.

History

Due to the merger of

Donavia JSC "Donavia" (russian: ОАО «Донавиа»), also known as Aeroflot-Don (russian: ОАО «Аэрофлот-Дон») between 2000–2009, was an Aeroflot subsidiary airline based in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Its main bases were Rostov-on-D ...

with

Rossiya Airlines Rossiya Airlinesrossiya-airlines.com - About us
retrieved 2016-09-19 ( ...

in 2016, Rostov-on-Don lost its main airline, even though Rossiya continued the flights previously operated by Donavia. As Rostov-on-Don was selected as one of the host cities for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, there was a perceived need for another airline to provide quality flights to connect the cities of

Southern Russia Southern Russia or the South of Russia (russian: Юг России, ''Yug Rossii'') is a colloquial term for the southernmost geographic portion of European Russia generally covering the Southern Federal District and the North Caucasian Feder ...

and

Central Russia Central Russia is, broadly, the various areas in European Russia. Historically, the area of Central Russia varied based on the purpose for which it is being used. It may, for example, refer to European Russia (except the North Caucasus and ...

. Azimuth registered itself as a legal entity in

Krasnodar Krasnodar (; rus, Краснода́р, p=krəsnɐˈdar; ady, Краснодар), formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southe ...

, but re-registered itself in Rostov-on-Don in February 2017, with shareholders being co-owner of

Vnukovo International Airport Vnukovo, formally Vnukovo Andrei Tupolev International Airport (named after Andrei Tupolev) ( rus, links=no, Внуково, p=ˈvnukəvə) , is a dual-runway international airport located in Vnukovo District, southwest of the centre of Moscow ...

Vitaly Vantsev, Pavel Udod and Pavel Yekzhanov. In March 2017, contracts were signed with for the delivery of four

Sukhoi Superjet 100 The Sukhoi Superjet 100 () or SSJ100 is a regional jet designed by Russian aircraft company Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, a division of the United Aircraft Corporation (now: Regional Aircraft – Branch of the Irkut Corporation). With development start ...

(SSJ100)

regional jets A regional jet (RJ) is a jet-powered regional airliner with fewer than 100 seats. The first one was the Sud-Aviation Caravelle in 1959, followed by the widespread Yakovlev Yak-40, Fokker F-28, and BAe 146. The 1990s saw the emergence of th ...

. Another contract was signed for the delivery of four more SSJ100s. The delivery of the aircraft began in July 2017, with the airline receiving its first SSJ100 on 7 July through the State Transport Leasing Company (GTLK). The airline plans to further increase the fleet to 16 aircraft. On 18 August 2017, the airline received an

air operator's certificate An air operator's certificate (AOC) is the approval granted by a civil aviation authority (CAA) to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial purposes. This requires the operator to have personnel, assets, and system in plac ...

(AOC) giving the airline permission to commence flight operations. Domestic routes to

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...

Chelyabinsk Chelyabinsk ( rus, Челя́бинск, p=tɕɪˈlʲæbʲɪnsk, a=Ru-Chelyabinsk.ogg; ba, Силәбе, ''Siläbe'') is the administrative center and largest city of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the seventh-largest city in Russia, with a ...

Volgograd Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stalingrád, label=none; ) ...

Astrakhan Astrakhan ( rus, Астрахань, p=ˈastrəxənʲ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in Southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the ...

, Surgut and

Gelendzhik Gelendzhik (russian: Геленджи́к) is a resort town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the Gelendzhik Bay of the Black Sea, between Novorossiysk ( to the northwest) and Tuapse ( to the southeast). Greater Gelendzhik sprawls for alon ...

, as well as international routes to

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

and

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

are planned to enter Azimuth's route network by 2021. On 7 December 2017, Azimuth officially shifted all flights from

Rostov-on-Don Airport Rostov-on-Don Airport (russian: Аэропорт Ростов-на-Дону) ''Aeroport Rostov-na-Donu'' was an international airport located east of the city of Rostov-on-Don, in southern Russia. It was one of the largest airports in the ...

. Azimuth officially started international flights on 29 September 2018 when it started offering weekly flights to Bishkek. Two days later, Azimuth had its first flight to Yerevan, starting a schedule now offering three services a week. The airline, which obtained its Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) in August 2017, is exempt from the requirement that Russian airlines must demonstrate at least two years’ of successful domestic operations before being allowed to perform international services. This is due to the fact that the requirement does not apply to countries of the

Eurasian Economic Union The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU or EEU)EAEU is the acronym used on thorganisation's website However, many media outlets use the acronym EEU. is an economic union of some post-Soviet states located in Eurasia. The Treaty on the Eurasian Econo ...

(EEU), of which Armenia and Kyrgyzstan are a part of. In December 2019, after more than two years of successful operations, Azimuth started its first international flights outside the

CIS Cis or cis- may refer to: Places * Cis, Trentino, in Italy * In Poland: ** Cis, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, south-central ** Cis, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, north Math, science and biology * cis (mathematics) (cis(''θ'')), a trigonome ...

, with flights to Tel Aviv started on 1 December and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

starting on 22 December. In the same month, Azimuth reached its operational

break-even point The break-even point (BEP) in economics, business—and specifically cost accounting—is the point at which total cost and total revenue are equal, i.e. "even". There is no net loss or gain, and one has "broken even", though opportunity costs ...

, citing government

subsidies A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...

and high dispatch reliability to be main contributing factors of its success. In 2020, Azimuth began regular flights to Crimea. Azimuth announced that it is planning to purchase the larger

Airbus A220-300 The Airbus A220 is a family of five-abreast narrow-body airliners by Airbus Canada Limited Partnership. It was originally designed by Bombardier and had two years in service as the Bombardier CSeries. The program was launched on 13 July 2 ...

with a seating maximum of 149 passengers. On 29 April 2021, the airline confirmed its Airbus orders, for international flights usage. As of October 2022, the order had however been removed by Airbus. The already produced and fitted aircraft have been allocated to

ITA Airways Italia Trasporto Aereo S.p.A., trading as ITA Airways, is the state-owned flag carrier airline of Italy. It is fully owned by the Government of Italy via the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The airline flies to over 60 scheduled domestic, E ...

instead.

Corporate affairs and identity

Azimuth is headquartered in Rostov-on-Don, Rostov Oblast. Shareholders of the airline include Vitaliy Vantsev, who owns

and Pavel Udod, former owner of

Yakutia Airlines Air Company Yakutia (russian: Авиакомпания «Якутия» – ''Aviakompanija «Yakutiya»'') is an airline based in Yakutsk, Sakha Republic, Russia. It operates domestic passenger services in Russia and within the Commonwealth of ...

. As of April 2017, Azimuth's CEO position is held by Pavel Yekzhanov. Azimuth's logo and livery was designed by Asgard Branding based from

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. According to the designers, the logo symbolizes the sun, the sea, the sky and southern hospitality.

Destinations

As of December 2019, Azimuth Airlines operates flights to 30 domestic destinations and three international destinations.

Fleet

RA-89080 SU95(LR) Azimuth VKO UUWW (37742561274)

As of July 2022, Azimuth operates an all-

fleet.

References

External links