Russia’s smartavia adds first A320neo, eyes more

smartavia (5N, Arkhangelsk Talagi) took delivery of its first A320-200N on April 15, 2021, and plans to add a further two units of the type in 2021. VP-BOS (msn 7523) was ferried from Goodyear via Portsmouth and Reykjavik Keflavik to Moscow Domodedovo. It has yet to enter revenue services. The 4.1-year-old narrowbody is owned by AerCap and was originally delivered to Interjet (AIJ, Toluca) in 2017. The Mexican carrier retired it in March 2020, the ch-aviation fleets history module shows. smartavia did not disclose the identity of the other two A320neo it plans to add in 2021. Spokesman Viktor Anoshkin told ch-aviation that the airline is looking for more A320-200Ns for 2022, although he would not go into details regarding numbers. To date, smartavia – formerly known as Nordavia – has been an all-Boeing operator with three B737-700s and nine B737-800s. Anoshkin confirmed that it has now abandoned earlier plans to add more B737NGs or B737 MAX for growth and has now opted for Airbus.