S7 lets you book a VIP-configured A319

True to its innovative spirit, Russian airline S7 has launched a new dedicated service that allows you to charter a whole aircraft on its website.

Airlines chartering out their planes is, of course, nothing new, but S7’s initiative, which has been branded as “S7 Select” has a couple of aspects that make it worth noticing.

First is the fact that they have configured two of their Airbus A319s for the task, fitting them with lower seat density. An interesting niche play at a time when most mainstream airlines are playing catch up with the densely-configured, single cabin low cost carriers.

The two aircraft, that have been labelled “A319 Extra Edition” had their refitting completed last November. They seat 24 in business class, while the economy class cabin is fitted with 72 seats, with a 34 inch pitch. This is 4 more than the regular S7 economy class seat pitch.

The other interesting thing is the streamlined, direct online booking. Again, online private jet booking is not new (check for example this podcast interview I did with Adam Twidell, founder of PrivateFly, a firm that runs a successful online jet booking service), but it is unusual for a regular airline to add this functionality to its website, complete with a fare calculator and booking engine similar to that of a regular airline ticket search.

If you were to fly Moscow-Saint Petersburg, it would be 865,000 Rubles or $11,000 total.

If you need to manage bookings for large groups, be it a sports team or a corporate outing, it may come in handy to compare with regular airline bookings.

Moscow-Sochi, for example, will fetch you 1,365,210 Rubles, or $18,000 at today’s exchange rate. If you fill all 96 seats, it comes at $188 per person, not ultra-low cost, but quite a decent price for a VIP-like experience.

Slide right or left to see how the cost per person changes on a Moscow to Sochi (one of Russia’s most popular routes) one way flight

The process can not be fully completed online, though. You can select route, flight times, number of passengers and type of service (there are two tiers of service onboard, business and economy), just like you would for a regular flight. You then enter your details and an operator will contact you to close the deal.

Little caveat, though: it looks like, for now, this service only works within Russia (and this section of the website is only available in Russian language).

If you want to go full Transiberian and fly all the way from Moscow to Vladivostok, on Russia’s Pacific Ocean coast, the service warns you there may be a technical stopover along the way, but you can book it, nevertheless