Bain & Company Moscow partner Andrey Panov joins Aeroflot
Andrey Panov, a partner at Bain & Company in Moscow, has joined Russian airline Aeroflot as deputy chief executive for the strategy and marketing functions.
At Aeroflot, Russia’s flagship carrier and a member of the SkyTeam airline alliance, Panov has been tasked with implementing a corporate strategy (‘Aeroflot Group’s Strategy 2023’) he to a large extent co-developed while in his previous role at Bain & Company. Key objectives of Aeroflot’s strategy include carrying 90-100 million passengers by 2023 (the year it will celebrate its 100th anniversary) up from 56 million last year, ramping up customer loyalty among in particular frequent flyers, while improving margins in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Panov will also play an important role in the growth of Pobeda Airlines (Russian for ‘victory’), a low-cost airline that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Aeroflot. Launched in 2015, Pobeda has grown to a fleet size of 26 Boeing’s type 737-800 7 million passengers, however, by 2023 the carrier is boldly hoping to carry 25-30 million passengers per year. The budget carrier currently flies to 20+ Russian cities and 10+ international locations, including Barcelona, Berlin, Bratislava, Istanbul, Larnaca, Leipzig, Milan, Munich and Yerevan, with the number of pan-European routes to expand in sync with the ambitions. Similar to Aeroflot’s corporate strategy, the roadmap for Pobeda was developed in collaboration with Bain & Company, with Panov at the helm of the engagement team.
Looking back at how the strategy unfolded, Panov said that he is proud of the progress to date. “It cost Aeroflot approximately $50 million to launch, and during first three years the carrier made a total profit of approximately $100 million.”
During his tenure as a consultant at the ‘Big 3’ strategy consulting firm, Panov progressively promoted from consultant up through the ranks to project leader and then partner in Bain’s Moscow office. Alongside serving Aeroflot, he led projects for some of Russia’s largest banks, transportation companies and non-profit groups in the field of education. Panov is an expert in strategy, operating model design, finance and digital, with a particular focus on clients in the aviation and education sectors.
Prior to joining the consulting firm in 2010, he previously served Russian-language daily business publication Vedomosti, which up to 2015 was co-owned by the Financial Times and Dow Jones. The global media giants pulled out in response to the introduction of new Russian media ownership law which prohibites foreign enterprises from owning more than 20% of stake in Russian media companies. Panov worked seven years for Vedomosti, latterly as deputy chief-editor.
Andrey Panov is a graduate of the mechanical-mathematical department of Moscow State University, and holds a PhD in Physics/Mathematics and completed an MBA at INSEAD.
With a fleet size of over 250 aircraft carrying 50+ million passengers to 55 countries, Aeroflot is one of Europe’s largest airlines. Aeroflot is headquartered at Sheremetyevo International Airport, one of Moscow’s three major airports.
According to a recent analysis by Oliver Wyman, Eastern European countries are leading the growth in Europe’s aviation industry.
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