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 On 18 April 2013, the Transaero air carrier took delivery of the first of the two Tupolev Tu-204-100C freighters ordered from the Ilyushin Finance Co. leasing company. On that day, the aircraft (reg. RA-64052) arrived at its base at Domodedovo in the Moscow Region from the factory airfield in Ulyanovsk. Transaero used it on a scheduled freight operation as soon as 21–22 April. Having left Domodedovo airport, the aircraft made a stopover at Novosibirsk's Tolmachovo airport that it departed for Yakutsk after having been refuelled, maintained and laden with extra food and mail. The Tu-204-100C hauled a total of 24 t of cargo on its first commercial flight. Services on this route shall be weekly. Transaero has plans to fly its new cargo liners on both domestic and international lines. The acceptance of the second Tu-204-100C (reg. RA-64051) was planned to commence in June.
Interestingly, the livery of the Transaero-accepted Tu-204-100C has nothing to do with the corporate paintjob of the carrier's airliners. In essence, the plane retained the appearance given to it when it had been designed for the Aviastar-TU airline with little changes.
However, the styling of the new freighter is a matter of taste. The end of the three-year-long downtime of the two planes made and tested in 2009 and delivered to IFC as far back as 28 April 2010 is far more important. Having changed hands of several end users, they had not entered service though until IFC and Transaero signed a long-term leasing agreement on 1 October last year. The carrier cited “the traditional endeavour to support the Russian aircraft industry” as a reason for opting for the Tu-204-100C. Transaero has got the experience in operating three Tupolev Tu-214s it leased in 2007–09 (their lessor is now Ilyushin Finance Co. too). “We have learnt the ropes on the type. We have been given good financial conditions, and the aircraft's lifting capacity/range combination meets our commercial objectives”, the carrier's Director General Olga Pleshakova commented on the acceptance of the first of the Tu-204-100Cs.
Cargo operations are a key line of Transaero's development in 2013. In 2012 the company for the first time became the leader in cargo and mail carriage on domestic lines owing to its Russia-largest wide-body passenger aircraft fleet. It is believed today that the optimal approach to operating in this market segment is to have both airliners and freighter as part of one's aircraft fleet. So, Transaero has decided to ramp up its cargo carriage operations rate by means of Tu-204-100Cs.
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