Red Wings Airlines

Red Wings was founded in 1999 under the name VARZ-400, after the Russian acronym of the Vnukovo Avia Repair Factory. It was renamed Airlines 400 in 2001, before adopting its current name in 2007.

The airline was owned by Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev, who wanted to create a discount airline using modern Russian Tupolev Tu-204-100B 210-passenger twin-jet airliners, both newly built and used. The company had a fleet of ten Tu-204-100Bs (an eleventh Tu-204 was written off after crashing at Vnukovo International Airport on 29 December 2012), and had also sought to acquire Airbus A320s and possibly Airbus A321s to complement its Tu-204 fleet.

Lebedev also owned 49% of German charter airline Blue Wings, which was to become Red Wings's sister company. However, on 13 January 2010, Blue Wings ceased all operations and filed for bankruptcy, citing the 2008 financial crisis for a reduction in investors.

After the crash of Flight 9268 in Vnukovo, Russian aviation authorities initiated an emergency check of airline operational activities and fleet maintenance, resulting in the revocation of the carrier's AOC, effective on 4 February 2013. The airline had ceased all operations the day before and owner Alexander Lebedev announced that no return to operation was planned.

On 4 April 2013, NRC sold Red Wings Airlines Group "Guta" for one symbolic ruble (in this case, leased aircraft remained with the lessor NRC-owned company Ilyushin Finance). The new owners of Red Wings planned to increase the fleet to 10–15 aircraft; the airline was only going to buy Russian aircraft. On 25 April 2013, Red Wings announced it would be headed by Sergey Belov—the previous CEO of the airline "Russia". On 18 June 2013, the Federal Air Transport Agency renewed Red Wings' commercial passenger and cargo transportation certificate. On 22 June, the airline resumed charter flights, and on 12 July, scheduled flights from Moscow.

To increase their business power, Red Wings and Nordavia decided to merge. But while the process was initiated, a date for finalization of the merger or clarification of the two airlines' future business relationship and branding identities was never announced. The plan called for Airbus A320 aircraft initially ordered by Nordavia to be delivered to Red Wings. The new brand name was to be announced after the completion of the merger.

In 2016 Ilyushin Finance acquired a 74% stake in Red Wings. In 2017 this was increased to 100%.

On 20 September 2018, Red Wings announced its re-branding; the first aircraft to arrive with the updated livery was to be the Airbus A321, set to arrive by the end of 2018.

In August 2021, Red Wings signed their first personal services 20-year contract to the value of 500 million dollars with United Aircraft Corporation in order to technical support of SSJ100 engines. Before, only the engine's manufacturer, PowerJet company, could carry the right to sign any technical support contracts with air companies directly.

In 2022, Red Wings was added to the List of airlines banned in the European Union along with all other Russian airlines due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.