TAM Overhauls, Refurbishes First Western Turboprops For Russian Carrier

In October 2020 Russian airlines carried a total of nearly 7 million passengers, about 60% of year-ago levels, on domestic and international routes. Recovery in aircraft movements has been even stronger for domestic traffic, and

Russia’s largest regional airline, KrasAvia, is increasingly busy.
Based in Krasnoyarsk, the third-largest city in Siberia, KrasAvia has flown 46 mostly Russian-built aircraft, including the Yakovlev Yak-42, Antonov An-24 and 26, plus the Czech-built Let 410.

The 64-year-old airline is generally maintaining its pre-virus flight schedule for winter 2020-21, in some cases even adding flights to specific Siberian cities or enabling direct services where only one-stop service was available before.

And it has recently added the first two western-built aircraft, ATR 72s, to its fleet. These used aircraft were overhauled and refurbished by Sweden’s Taby Air Maintenance (TAM).

TAM too is going through changes. It has traditionally worked on Saab 340s and 2000s, but is now supporting ATR 72s. This is its first ATR delivery to a Russian airline.

Pär Gulle, TAM managing director, calls the ATR work for KrasAvia “a significant achievement, and a confirmation that the decision to expand into the ATR family was right. . . With this delivery to KrasAvia, we confirm our commitment to provide a first class technical support, including the ATR 72-family as well.”