Russia Returns to the Competitive Airline Market

Russia has returned, after a long hiatis, to the competitive airline market with the first of an initial batch produced Sukhoi SuperJet 100s making their maiden 3 hour flight.

GSS president Vladimir Prisyazhnyuk said, "The premiere flight of the first batch-produced airliner Sukhoi Superjet 100 is an important landmark in the implementation of the programme; a beginning has been set for a batch production of the airliners".

Of the first production batch five are almost complete and the remaining 11 are in various stages of assembly. The plane, manufactured by the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co, is meant to replace the aging Tu-134s. Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co is partially owned by Finmeccanica of Italy, 25%.

The plane is a modern fly by wire machine, and is designed to compete against the Embraer E-Jets and the Bombardier CRJ. It seats between 60 and 90 passengers, running at $31.7 million per unit, with lower operating expenses than either of its two main competitors. The plane was designed to meet Russian, CIS, EU and US market specifications. The plane’s powerplants are two PowerJet SaM146 turbofan engines developed by PowerJet.

There are presently orders for 256 planes: 86 for Russian aviation companies, 30 for Hungary, 10 for Italy and 6 for the US, the remainder going to other smaller nations.