A newly established air company in southern Russia, Azimuth is planning to launch flights to Armenia and Kyrgyzstan in summer, airline market intelligence platform Aviator reveals.

The carrier, which is based at Rostov-on-Don's Platov airport, is planning to increase its SSJ100 fleet to eight by the end of April 2018 and to 16 by 2022, allowing itself to reach more destinations in Europe and the CIS.

Also, the company is reportedly aiming to operate flights to Germany and the Czech Republic in 2019.

Azimuth carried 73,000 passengers in 2017 following its launch in September 2017. In 2018, the airline aims to serve 730,000 passengers.

At the end of September 2017, the chairman of Azimuth's board of directors, Pavel Udod, suggested changing federal aviation rules (FAP) to allow flights to the EAEU countries at the initial stage of the airline's operation. Under current laws, any new air company must implement domestic flights for at least two years before taking on international routes.

Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said back than that it had already been decided to make changes to the aviation rules to allow newly-created airlines using Russian aircraft to fly on regular routes, even if the number of planes is under eight.