OREANDA-NEWS. April 14, 2014. S7 Airlines, a member of the oneworld® global aviation alliance, and the Airbus company have concluded an agreement for installation of the new “Sharklet” winglets on two Airbus A320 aircraft from the airline’s fleet.

The works will be carried out this spring by specialists of the Engineering Holding, the largest supplier of aircraft MRO services in Russia.

“The S7 Airlines fleet is one of the newest and most modern fleets on the Russian air transportation market. We use the latest and most modern developments of aircraft manufacturers, which allow us to make our airliners not only comfortable, but efficient as well. This year we are also planning to obtain two new Airbus liners with production retrofitted sharklets”, Alexey Ovsyannikov, Deputy Director Continuing Airworthiness of S7 Airlines, noted.

Sharklets improve the aerodynamic characteristics of an aircraft reducing the fuel burn up to 4% over long routes. Furthermore, they offer an increase in range by 180km or payload by 450kg. The new 2.4 metre high winglets are made from composite materials.

Sharklets can be installed on the A320 family aircraft that were produced beginning from December 2012. These aircraft already have a reinforced wing structure, which requires no improvements. Beginning from 2015 it will be possible to install sharklets on the A320 aircraft produced before December 2012.