Transaero

Anyone standing at Frankfurt, Munich or Tegel between 2005 and 2015 could see an airline that many barely had on their radar: Transaero, Russia’s largest private airline. Its Boeing 747s and 777s made it one of Eastern Europe’s most exciting long-haul airlines – until it collapsed under a mountain of debt in October 2015. This page shows you how Transaero came about, which aircraft it flew and how to recognize it in old photos and logbooks.

Transaero at a glance

Transaero was a Russian airline that flew from 1991 to 2015. It was founded on December 28, 1990, still in the Soviet Union – as the first private airline to receive a license for passenger service there. At the end, Transaero ranked second in Russia by passengers, directly behind Aeroflot. In 2013 it carried about 12.5 million passengers, in 2014 about 13.2 million.

Behind the airline stood mainly Alexander Pleshakov and Olga Pleshakova, who ran the company as general director for much of its history. The hubs were at Moscow Vnukovo and St. Petersburg Pulkovo, with Sochi and Yekaterinburg as additional bases. Transaero was headquartered for a long time at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, most recently in St. Petersburg.

The profile was a mix of scheduled and charter airline. Transaero flew within Russia, to many vacation countries and on long-haul routes to North America and Asia. It never belonged to an alliance.

The history in stages

Transaero started small: with charter flights in leased Aeroflot aircraft. The first flight went from Moscow to Tel Aviv on November 5, 1991. In July 1992 the airline took delivery of its first own aircraft, an Ilyushin Il-86. After that, Transaero consistently bet on Western technology – at a time when most Russian airlines still flew Soviet types.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code UN: appeared in the flight number, on tickets and departure boards – including on the last flight, UN160.
• ICAO code TSO: used by air traffic control in the flight plan.
• Callsign TRANSOVIET: this is how the crews identified themselves on the radio.

By the way, the IATA code UN has nothing to do with the United Nations – IATA codes are pure airline identifiers. The callsign “TRANSOVIET,” on the other hand, recalls the founding era to the end, when the Soviet Union still existed.

The fleet: Boeing instead of Tupolev

Hardly any Russian airline bet on Boeing so early and so completely. Almost all jets were used and leased – that let the fleet grow quickly and cheaply, but tied the airline to lease payments in foreign currency.

In August 2015, shortly before the end, 60 aircraft were in service:

Type	Number (August 2015)	Use	Spotter tip
Boeing 747-400	9	Long-haul and high-density vacation routes	Partly ex Japan Airlines, the airline’s showpiece types
Boeing 777-200ER	6 (one inactive)	Long-haul	From 2012 also to Los Angeles
Boeing 777-300	4	Long-haul	Used from Singapore Airlines, not an ER
Boeing 767-300ER	8	Medium- and long-haul	Common type on vacation routes
Boeing 767-200ER	2	Medium- and long-haul	Flew the very last Transaero flight
Boeing 737-800	12	Short- and medium-haul	Youngest 737 in the fleet
Boeing 737-300, 737-400 and 737-500	several	Short- and medium-haul	Older generation, slated for retirement
Tupolev Tu-214	3	Short- and medium-haul	Russian jet type in the passenger fleet

The exact numbers for the 737 Classics differ by source and cutoff date, which is why they appear here without a fixed figure. Overall, the fleet was considerably larger in its best years: in 2013 Transaero operated 98 aircraft.

The airline’s history also includes Boeing 737-200s, 737-500s, 737-700s, 757-200s and the Boeing 747-200. The three Tu-214s from the Tupolev Tu-204 family came from a 2003 contract for ten aircraft; the manufacturer is Tupolev. In July 2015 the first Airbus A321 joined the fleet – too late to play a role in the network.

Russia’s jumbo airline

The Boeing 747 was Transaero’s flagship. The first jumbo arrived in 2005, a leased 747-200 from the fleet of Virgin Atlantic – with it a Russian passenger airline flew the 747 for the first time. From 2007 Transaero replaced the 747-200s with used 747-400s, and from 2010 up to twelve former jumbos from Japan Airlines joined.

Transaero did not fly the big jets only on long-haul routes. Typical was their use on heavily demanded vacation and domestic routes, where many seats per flight mattered more than range. From 2014 Transaero also served Miami with the 747-400.

The Boeing 777 complemented the jumbos. In 2011 Transaero took over four used 777-300s from Singapore Airlines, and 777-200ERs were added. If you sort old photos, look closely at the 777-300: it is the early non-ER version, recognizable among other things by the smaller engines and the missing raked wingtips of the 777-300ER.

Orders that never arrived

On paper, Transaero planned a big leap around 2011/2012. The airline ordered four Airbus A380s, four Boeing 787s and four Boeing 747-8s, plus Airbus narrowbody jets and the Sukhoi Superjet 100. None of these new-build long-haul jets ever flew for Transaero. The first A380s were due in 2015, but Transaero asked Airbus to postpone delivery even before that.

The most interesting fate is that of the 747-8. The US Air Force bought two of the undelivered aircraft. They are being converted into the new presidential aircraft Boeing VC-25B, the successors to the VC-25A. The basis is the Boeing 747-8 – originally built for a Russian private airline.

Transaero in Germany and Europe

For German spotters, Transaero was seen mainly at the big airports. On scheduled service the airline flew to Berlin Tegel, Frankfurt and Munich. In winter, seasonal flights to Friedrichshafen were added, and in Austria to Salzburg and Innsbruck.

Since December 1998 Transaero also flew to London Gatwick. And the destination of the very first flight stayed in the network to the end: Tel Aviv was among the routes Transaero still served until mid-October 2015 after announcing its end.

Anyone who photographed back then will find Transaero aircraft on their memory card from, say, the Zeppelinheim viewing platform in Frankfurt or the visitors’ hill (Besucherhügel) in Munich. Today no Russian airlines land there anymore – since 2022 they have not been allowed to land in the EU because of sanctions.

How to recognize Transaero

Transaero’s livery was remarkably consistent for decades: the logo stayed practically unchanged since the founding, with the titles “TRANSAERO” on the fuselage. Only in 2015 did the airline plan a switch to a new design. A Boeing 737-800 with the registration EI-RUR showed it first, the A321 taken over in July 2015 second. A repaint of the fleet no longer happened.

An important feature is the registration. Many Transaero jets were registered not in Russia but in Ireland and therefore carried an EI- on the tail, for example EI-XLN or EI-RUB. This was common among Russian airlines with leased Western jets. How the prefixes are structured is explained in the guide Understanding aircraft registrations.

Two Boeing 747-400s wore special liveries. One of them, EI-XLN, showed a tiger design and is among the best-known Transaero photos of all.

The end: bankruptcy in 2015

Transaero grew mainly on borrowed money. At the end of 2014 the airline was close to insolvency, and in March 2015 its debts stood at the equivalent of around €1.1 billion. The collapse of the ruble made lease payments due in foreign currency ever more expensive, while demand for foreign travel fell.

Around 6,000 employees moved to Aeroflot, which also took over 34 leased aircraft, 20 of them long-haul jets. What that meant for the Aeroflot Group you can read in its entry. Even before the end, numerous aircraft had been ferried to Teruel in Spain for storage, including six of the nine 747s and almost half of the 737s. How Transaero compares with other collapses is put in context by the piece on major airline bankruptcies in Europe. A parallel can be found at Air Berlin, which two years later also failed on debt and the withdrawal of a major shareholder.

Transaero in the spotter’s routine today

For your logbook Transaero is an archive topic. Anyone who photographed at major German airports or vacation destinations between 2005 and 2015 has a good chance of a Transaero jumbo on their memory card. These pictures are worth sorting afterward: type, registration, location and date turn a souvenir photo into a clean logbook entry.

The search for what became of them is exciting. Because most jets were leased, they spread to new operators after 2015 or were stored and scrapped. An impression of where retired jets end up is given by the piece on aircraft boneyards. And if you are sorting older 737s, the overview of the generations of the Boeing 737 helps.

Russian long-haul traffic with big Boeing jets also exists at cargo airlines: AirBridgeCargo flew the 747 as a freighter, and Volga-Dnepr Airlines is known for its widebody freighters.

Common mix-ups

• Thinking UN stands for the United Nations – the IATA code belonged to Transaero.
• Thinking Transaero was an Aeroflot subsidiary – it was a private competitor to the end; Aeroflot only stepped in in September 2015.
• Logging the 777-300 as a 777-300ER – Transaero flew the early version without ER.
• Taking every 747-8 order for a delivery – Transaero never operated a 747-8.
• Thinking an EI registration means an Irish airline – many Russian lease jets were registered in Ireland.
• Confusing the founding year with the first flight – it was founded in 1990 but flew only from November 1991.

Conclusion

Transaero was the airline that westernized Russian aviation most clearly after the end of the Soviet Union: private owners, Boeing instead of Tupolev and jumbos on vacation routes. For a quarter of a century it grew, until debt and the ruble crisis brought it down in 2015. For spotters it remains a rewarding archive topic – with Irish registrations, rare 777-300s and a trail that leads all the way to Air Force One.