Aeroflot is the national carrier of Russia. It became the first Russian airline to join an international airline alliance in 2006, SkyTeam. Aeroflot used to be the largest airline in the world during the Cold War. Today, its fleet consists of about 90 aircraft, which fly to around 90 destinations on several continents.
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Aeroflot was founded on February 25, 1932, when all Russian civil aviation activities were joined in the Central Administration of the Civil Air Fleet – abbreviated Aeroflot. However, already since 1921, aviation industry had operated in Russia, mainly the Deutsch-Russische Luftverkehrs-AG (Deruluft), a German-Russian joint venture.
In 1937, Aeroflot started to operate the international flights Deruluft had operated until then. By the end of that decade, the new airline had already developed into the largest airline in the world, employing more than 400,000 people and operating 4,000 aircraft.
During the whole Soviet era, Aeroflot was virtually the only airline in the Soviet Union. It became known as Aeroflot - Soviet Airlines outside Russia. In September 1956, Aeroflot introduced the Tupolev TU-104 and thus became the first airline in the world to use jetplanes on regular flights.
During the 1950s, international services were expanded, also to Western states like the United Kingdom, Spain, the USA and Canada.
In 1975, Aeroflot first used the Tupolev Tu-144, the first and only Soviet civil supersonic aircraft. It operated mail and passenger flights for some years, before it was retired in 1978, due to unefficiency and technical problems. Although being in use only a short time, it still is the fastest civil aircraft ever built.
In 1976, the 100 millionth passenger was transported. Aeroflot not only performed civil aviation service but also helped the military, the space agency, oil industry, etc. In its best times, the airline operated 10,000 civil aircraft plus hundreds of helicopters and cargo aircraft. Furthermore, it provided the plane for the Soviet leader.
In 1989, Aeroflot joined IATA. By that time, the airline had flown almost 250 billion passenger kilometers.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Soviet airline was split up in more than 300 airlines, many of them becoming the national airlines of the newly formed independent states, like for example Air Ukraine and Uzbekistan Airways. Also within Russia, many regional airlines were formed. The airline that continued to operate internationally kept the Soviet name; it became Aeroflot - Russian International Airlines.
In 1994, the airline became a joint stock company. 49 % of the shares were sold to its employees. The rest remained in the hands of the government.
In 2000, the carrier was renamed Aeroflot – Russian Airlines, as more and more domestic services were performed in addition to the international flights. In 2003, new uniforms and a new livery were introduced. This, together with the purchase of modern Western airplanes like the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 767 is supposed to make Aeroflot a competitive airline. Aggressive market campaigns were introduced in order to gain a higher market share on the domestic market.
During the time of the Soviet Union, Aeroflot suffered extremely many aircraft losses and had many fatal accidents. However, since 1994, no fatal accident has occurred. There has been general improvement in safety and maintenance.
In April 2006, Aeroflot became the first Russian airline to join an international airline alliance, when it became a SkyTeam member.
Aeroflot owns a fleet of around 90 aircraft, about half of them being Russian Ilyushin Il-96 and Tupolev Tu-134s and Tu-154s. The rest are Boeings and Airbuses, which have an average age of 6.7 years. Around 90 destinations are reached.
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