Editing Aeroflot (section)

===Aeroflot during the Cold War (1946–91)===
[[File:Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-14 at Arlanda, November 1970.jpg|thumb|After its introduction in 1954, the [[Ilyushin Il-14]] operated on Aeroflot's All-Union services.]]
At the end of [[World War II]], the [[Government of the Soviet Union|Soviet government]] repaired and rebuilt essential airport infrastructure, and it strengthened the Aeroflot units in the European part of the Soviet Union. In 1945, Aeroflot carried 537,000 passengers, compared with 359,000 in 1940.<ref name="hugh" />{{rp|16}} The government made it a priority in the immediate postwar years to expand services from Moscow to the capital of each of the [[Republics of the Soviet Union]], in addition to important industrial centres on the country and transferred to Aeroflot many [[Lisunov Li-2]]s, which became the backbone of the [[Aeroflot fleet]].<ref name="hugh" />{{rp|17}} The [[Ilyushin Il-12]] entered service on Aeroflot's all-Union scheduled routes on 22 August 1947, and supplemented already existing Li-2 services. The [[Ilyushin Il-18 (1947)|original Ilyushin Il-18]] entered service around the same time as the Il-12, and was operated on routes from Moscow to [[Yakutsk]], [[Khabarovsk]], Vladivostok, Alma Ata, Tashkent, [[Sochi]], [[Mineralnye Vody]] and Tbilisi. By 1950, the Il-18 was withdrawn from service, replaced by Il-12s.<ref name="hugh" />{{rp|18,20}} MVL and [[general aviation]] services received a boost in March 1948, when the first [[Antonov An-2]]s were delivered and entered service in [[Central Russia]]. Development of MVL services over latter years was attributed to the An-2, which was operated by Aeroflot in all areas of the Soviet Union.<ref name="hugh" />{{rp|20}}[[File:Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104A at Arlanda, July 1972.jpg|thumb|left|Aeroflot became the first airline in the world with sustained jet aircraft service, when it introduced the [[Tupolev Tu-104]] in 1956.]]

Aeroflot's route network had extended to {{convert|295400|km|mi}} by 1950, and it carried 1,603,700 passengers, {{convert|151070|t|lb}} of freight and {{convert|30580|t|lb}} of mail that year. Night flights began in the same year, and the fifth five-year plan, covering the period 1951–1955, emphasised Aeroflot expanding night-time operations, which vastly improved aircraft utilisation. By 1952, 700 destinations in the Soviet Union received regular flights from Aeroflot.<ref name="hugh" />{{rp|20}} On 30 November 1954, the [[Ilyushin Il-14]] entered service, and the aircraft took a leading role in the operation of Aeroflot's all-Union services. The number of passengers carried in 1955 increased to 2,500,000, whilst freight and mail carriage also increased, to 194,960 and 63,760 tons, respectively. By this time, Aeroflot's route network covered a distance of {{convert|321500|km|mi}}.<ref name="hugh" />{{rp|21}} The [[20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], held in 1956, included plans for Aeroflot services to be dramatically increased 3.8 times, with a target of 16,000,000 annual passengers by 1960. To meet these goals, Aeroflot introduced higher capacity turbojet and turbine-prop aircraft on key domestic routes, and on services to Aeroflot destinations abroad. A major step for Aeroflot occurred on 15 September 1956 when the [[Tupolev Tu-104]] [[jet aircraft]] entered service on the Moscow-[[Omsk]]-[[Irkutsk]] route, marking the world's first sustained jet airline service. The airline began international flights with the type on 12 October 1956 under the command of [[Boris Bugayev]] with flights from Moscow to [[Prague]]. The aircraft placed Aeroflot in an enviable position, as airlines in the West had operated throughout the 1950s with large piston-engined aircraft.<ref name="hugh" />{{rp|21}}<ref name="davies">{{Cite book | last=Davies | first=R.E.G. | author-link=R.E.G. Davies | title=Aeroflot: An Airline and Its Aircraft |edition=First | year=1992 | publisher=[[Paladwr Press]] | location=[[Rockville, Maryland]] | isbn=978-0-9626483-1-1}}</ref>{{rp|44}} By 1958, the route network covered {{convert|349200|km|mi}}, and the airline carried 8,231,500 passengers, and 445,600 tons of mail and freight, with fifteen percent of all-Union services being operated by jet aircraft.<ref name="hugh" />{{rp|23}}
[[File:Aeroflot Yakovlev Yak-40 in Sweden.jpg|thumb|The [[Yakovlev Yak-40]], introduced in September 1968.{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}}]]

Aeroflot introduced the [[Antonov An-10]] and [[Ilyushin Il-18]] in 1959, and together with its existing jet aircraft, the airline was able to extend services on modern aircraft to twenty one cities by 1960.<ref name="hugh" />{{rp|23}} The [[Tupolev Tu-114]], then the world's largest airliner, entered service with the Soviet carrier on 24 April 1961 on the Moscow-[[Khabarovsk]] route; covering a distance of {{convert|6980|km|mi}} in 8 hours 20 minutes.<ref name="hugh" />{{rp|24}} The expansion of the [[Aeroflot fleet]] saw services with modern aircraft being extended to forty one cities in 1961, with fifty percent of all-Union services being operated by these aircraft. This fleet expansion also saw the number of passengers carried in 1961 skyrocketing to 21,800,000.<ref name="hugh" />{{rp|24}} Further expansion came in 1962 when both the [[Tupolev Tu-124]] and [[Antonov An-24]] entered regular service with Aeroflot on various medium and short-haul routes. By 1964, Aeroflot operated direct flights from Moscow to 100 cities, from Leningrad to 44 cities, and from Kyiv to 38 cities. The airline also operated direct flights from [[Mineralnye Vody]] to 48 cities across the Soviet Union, denoting the importance of the operation of holiday aircraft services to Aeroflot.<ref name="hugh" />{{rp|26}} Statistics for the same year showed Aeroflot operating an all-Union route network extending over {{convert|400000|km|mi}}, and carrying 36,800,000 passengers.<ref name="hugh" />{{rp|27}}

By 1966, Aeroflot carried 47,200,000 passengers over a domestic route network of {{convert|474600|km|mi}}. For the period of the eighth five-year plan, which ran from 1966 to 1970, Aeroflot carried a total of 302,200,000 passengers, 6.47 billion tons of freight and 1.63 billion tons of mail.<ref name="hugh" />{{rp|27}} During the five-year plan period, all-Union services were extended over an additional 350 routes; an additional 1,000 MVL routes were begun, and 40 new routes were opened up with all-cargo flights.<ref name="hugh" />{{rp|27–28}} In 1967, the [[Ilyushin Il-62]] and [[Tupolev Tu-134]] were introduced, and in September 1968 the [[Yakovlev Yak-40]] [[regional jet]] began operations on short-haul services. That same year, the Il-62 inaugurated the long-delayed service between Moscow and New York, which finally began in July and was operated by Aeroflot and Pan Am jointly. According to the book ''The Aeroflot Story: From Russia With Luck'': "This business relationship became an acrimonious affair in which both parties complained it had been wronged by the other. Pan Am accused the Soviets of illegally siphoning away Moscow-to-New York passengers, whilst in turn; Aeroflot accused US consular officials in Russia of having steered passengers to Pan Am flights."{{sfnp|Jones|2018}}{{Page needed|date=February 2022}}<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/05/04/archives/pan-am-accuses-aeroflot-of-stealing-passengers.html | last=Witkin | first=Richard | title=Pan Am Accuses Aeroflot of Stealing Passengers | work=[[The New York Times]] | date=4 May 1971 | url-access=limited}}</ref> In 1968, the company opened its first office in the United States.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/07/22/archives/news-of-realty-aeroflot-office-soviet-company-to-occupy-49th-street.html | title=NEWS OF REALTY: AEROFLOT OFFICE; Soviet Company to Occupy 49th Street Building | work=[[The New York Times]] | date=22 July 1968 | url-access=limited}}</ref>

[[File:Flag of the Aeroflot.svg|thumb|Flag of Aeroflot (1961–1991)]]
By 1970, the last year of the five-year plan period, Aeroflot was operating flights to over 3,500 destinations in the Soviet Union, and at the height of the 1970 summer holidays season, the airline was carrying approximately 400,000 passengers per day, and 90% of passengers were being carried on propeller-turbine and jet aircraft.<ref name="hugh" />{{rp|28}} In March 1970, Aeroflot had amassed a route network that was {{convert|600000|km|abbr=off}} long, a quarter of which covered international destinations. At this time, the carrier had agreements with {{cardinal|59}} countries but it only served {{cardinal|54}} of them, including {{cardinal|55}} destinations.<ref name="FI1970-463/4">{{cite journal |title=World airlines 1970 – Aeroflot | journal=[[Flight International]]|volume= 97|number= 3185|date= 26 March 1970 |pages=[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1970/1970%20-%200513.html 463], [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1970/1970%20-%200514.html 464]}}</ref>{{rp|463}} In January 1971, the Central Administration of International Air Traffic ({{langx|ru|link=no|Центральное управление международных воздушных сообщений}}) (TsUMVS) was established within the framework of [[IATA]], and became the sole enterprise authorised to operate international flights. Abroad, the airline was known as Aeroflot Soviet Airlines. In 1976, Aeroflot carried its 100 millionth passenger. Its flights were mainly concentrated around the Soviet Union, but the airline also had an international network covering five continents: North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The network included countries such as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, Cuba, Mexico and the People's Republic of China.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aeroflot | title=Aeroflot – Russian airline | encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] | date=8 March 2024}}</ref>

Aeroflot service between the Soviet Union and the United States was interrupted from 15 September 1983 until 2 August 1990, following an executive order by U.S. President [[Ronald Reagan]] revoking Aeroflot's license to operate flights into and out of the United States following the downing of [[Korean Air Lines Flight 007]] by the Soviet Air Force. Flights resumed in April 1986.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1986/04/30/aeroflot-has-returned-to-the-us-and-dulles/c64c4f86-df69-448e-b6ed-53f7ed39f691/ | title=Aeroflot Has Returned To the U.S. and Dulles | first=Michael | last=Specter | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | date=April 30, 1986}}</ref> At the start of the 1990s, Aeroflot reorganised again giving more autonomy to territorial divisions. [[R. E. G. Davies]], former curator of the [[Smithsonian Institution]], claims that by 1992 Aeroflot had over 600,000 people operating over 10,000 aircraft.<ref name="davies" />{{rp|92,94}}

====Other functions====
[[File:Aeroflot Mil Mi-10 at Groningen Airport.jpg|thumb|An Aeroflot Mi-10 heavy lift helicopter seen at [[Groningen Airport]] in the early 1970s]]
Once the world's largest [[Air carrier|carrier]],<ref name="FI1981">{{cite journal|title=World airline directory – Aeroflot |journal=Flight International |date=16 May 1981 |pages=[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1981/1981%20-%201387.html 1389], [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1981/1981%20-%201387.html 1390]}}</ref>{{rp|1389}} Aeroflot did not restrict its operations to the transportation of passengers, but [[monopoly|monopolised]] all civil aviation activities within the [[Soviet Union]]. Apart from passenger transportation that covered a domestic network of over 3,600 villages, towns and cities, activities undertaken by the airline that were labelled as "non-transport tasks" included [[air ambulance]]; [[aerial application]]; heavy lifting for the [[Soviet space program|Soviet Space Agency]]; offshore oil platform support; exploration and [[aeromagnetic survey]] for natural resources; support for construction projects; transport of military troops and supplies (as an adjunct to the [[Soviet Air Force]]); atmospheric research; and [[Aerial surveillance|remote area patrol]]. It operated hundreds of helicopters and cargo aircraft in addition to civil airliners. It also operated the Soviet equivalent of a [[Air transports of heads of state and government|presidential aircraft]] and other VIP transports of government and [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist party]] officials.<ref name="davies" />{{rp|94}}<ref name="FI1981"/>{{rp|1389}}<ref name="Aerial work in the U.S.S.R.">{{cite journal|title="Aerial work" in the U.S.S.R. |date=29 October 1954 |journal=Flight |pages=[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1954/1954%20-%202960.html 645], [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1954/1954%20-%202961.html 646]}}</ref> Aeroflot was also responsible for such services as ice patrol in the Arctic Ocean and escorting of ships through frozen seas; oil exploration; power line surveillance; and transportation and heavy lifting support on construction projects. For the latter tasks, Aeroflot used, in addition to smaller helicopters, the [[Mil Mi-10]] flying crane capable of lifting {{convert|11000 to 14000|kg|lb}}. Hauling of heavy cargo, including vehicles, was performed by the world's largest operational helicopter, the [[Mil Mi-26]]. Its unusual eight-blade rotor enabled it to lift a maximum payload of 20 tons. The medium- and long-range passenger- and cargo aircraft of Aeroflot were also part of the strategic air transport reserve, ready to provide immediate airlift support to the armed forces. Short-range aircraft and helicopters were available for appropriate military support missions.