One of Vim Airline's Boeing 757-200s.
One has to respect an airline that can support a pink livery with pride. Especially one that comes from a country with a history boring and gray airline liveries. It is almost like Russian airlines are making with loud liveries like the one found on S7 airlines and the one highlighted today, VIM Airlines.
VIM was founded in October 2002 and is based out of Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport (DME). The name comes from the initial’s of the founder, Victor Ivanovich Merkulov and currently has a fleet of 11 Boeing 757-200 aircraft. According to their website, in 2010 the airline signed, “a memorandum of Boeing 747 aircraft purchase”, and I am guessing those are used aircraft and not the new 747-8I. Interestingly, they also have the exact same statement listed under 2009, so I am not quite sure what to think about the possibility of them taking on a 747.
VIM has also stated that they plane to purchase Boeing 737-900ER aircraft and convert their 757s into cargo planes. And if their future fleet plans were not confusing enough, at one time, they hoped to leave Boeing 717s, which fell through and have announced a signed preliminary agreement for 10 Tupelov Tu-204SM with an option of 44 others.
Image by Osdu
Yesterday the russian authorities have banned VIM Avia from the european skies apparently for unsatisfactory safety assessment.
Ha, look at that, they sure did. http://rt.com/business/news/entry-skies-russian-carriers-837/
Thanks for pointing that out.
David
Moscow is one of (if not the) the most amazing places in Europe for planespotting, VIM 757s are a regular sight at DME, but it is also fascinating to see the mix of Russian and Western models, some of them with really cool liveries…