Smartavia

Smartavia, formerly known as Nordavia (until March 2019), is a Russian low-cost airline with its head office in Arkhangelsk, Russia. It mainly operates scheduled domestic and regional services. Its main bases are Arkhangelsk Airport, Pulkovo Airport (Saint Petersburg), and Sheremetyevo International Airport, serving Moscow. Smartavia is a joint-stock company.
In February 2025, it is on the List of airlines banned in the European Union.
The airline was formed in 1963 as Arkhangelsk United Aviation Squadron (Russian: Архангельский объединенный авиационный отряд) and became AVL Arkhangelsk Airlines (Архангельские воздушные линии) in 1991.
In August 2004, Aeroflot acquired 51% of the airline, with the rest being held by Aviainvest. The company was renamed Aeroflot-Nord, becoming Aeroflot's second regional airline.
When the contract with Aeroflot ended on 1 December 2009, the airline operated independently as Nordavia. Because of the bad press the subsidiary received following the Aeroflot Flight 821 disaster, and Russian aviation officials' 15 July 2009 imposition of restrictions (including a ban on international charter tours) on then Aeroflot-Nord flight operations due to insufficient security and bad finances, Aeroflot distanced itself from Nordavia.
In June 2011, Aeroflot sold the airline to Norilsk Nickel for a US$235 million, but it only costed net $7 million, due to assumption of company's debt. On December 1, 2011, Norilsk Nickel reported that Nordavia was to be merged in Taimyr Air Company. However, the Federal Antimonopoly Service blocked the merger of Nordavia with Taimyr Air Company, and Nordavia was ultimately sold to Sergey Kuznetsov, the owner of Red Wings Airlines, in March 2016.
To increase business power, Red Wings Airlines and Nordavia decided to merge. In April 2017, under Red Wings' ownership, it was announced that the airline would change its name to SmartAvia from Q3 2017. In addition to the new brand, the airline planned to also introduce a new livery, still in Nordavia's colors (blue, orange, gray) but with a design that moves away from its Aeroflot ancestry. The new branding was planned to debut on the airline's Airbus A320-200 aircraft, however these aircraft were instead delivered to Red Wings after the airline decided to continue using its Boeing 737 aircraft, accepting its first Boeing 737-700 in May 2018, by then still retaining its Nordavia name and brand identity. On 20 March 2019, it was announced that the merging of Nordavia with Red Wings airlines was canceled.
Following the cancellation, the airline was re-branded to Smartavia. The first aircraft of the new livery arrived in April 2019, with all existing getting replaced by the end of the year. By 2021, the airline had retired all of its Boeing 737-500s, and in April 2021, the airline began their replacement with new Airbus A320neos, officially completing the re-branding into Smartavia and announcing itself as a low-cost carrier.
On 28 May 2021, during a press conference held in Kaliningrad, with the presentation of new Airbus A320neos previously operated by Mexican carrier Interjet, the airline announced a massive order expansion of 40 new Airbus aircraft and plans to phase out all Boeing 737 aircraft by 2023 and only operate Airbus aircraft from then on. If the plan were to succeed, the airline was to purchase Airbus A321neos by 2024.
On 16 September 2021, the airline announced its base expansion plans: by spring 2022, the airline planned to open its new hub at Moscow-Sheremetyevo, as well as to open bases in Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Samara and Sochi.
Smartavia Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:
As of September 2024, the Smartavia fleet consists of the following aircraft:
Smartavia has previously operated the following aircraft:
Media related to Smartavia at Wikimedia Commons