Sberbank and VTB establishing interregional airline?

Russia's two largest banks, Sberbank and VTB will establish an airline for interregional flights, business daily Vedomosti reported.citing sources in the industry.

The share of flights without stopovers in Moscow amounted to only 23% in 2017, and President Vladimir Putin ordered to take it to 50% by 2024.

According to the sources, Bain & Company was chosen as the consultant of VTB and Sberbank, each of the banks paid 55.47 million rubles for the service. The project documents must be ready by December 31, PRIME reported.

The passenger traffic of the airline is planned at 6–10 million people a year. Only two Russian airline holdings carry more: Aeroflot with 50 million people and S7 Group with 14.3 in 2017.