In Aeroflot

By early this year, Russian flag carrier Aeroflot had operated 10 out of the 30 Sukhoi Superjet 100B/95s ordered. On 31 May 2013, an Aeroflot representative signed the acceptance report of another SSJ100 (c/n 95025). It is the 11th airliner of the type received by Aeroflot and the first aircraft in the so-called full specification, differing from the 10 earlier-delivered planes in modified avionics suite and enhanced passenger comfort. 

For instance, the full-specification airliners are fitted with an updated flight management system (FMS) and a weather radar with the wind shift measurement capability. In addition, it has more video monitoring cameras, separate lighting controls in economy and business classes, an extra flight attendant work station, the third lavatory and fourth galley module as compared to the light specification variant. Provision has been made for individual air cooling for each passenger seat.

Aeroflot’s first full specification SSJ100 (reg. RA-89014), named after Valery Sysovsky, an honoured worker of the carrier, arrived in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on 5 June 2013.

At the same time, under an agreement between the customer and manufacturer, the light specification planes in Aeroflot’s aircraft fleet shall be returned to Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company and then sold to new customers, as full specification aircraft are delivered. Therefore, the flag carrier’s very first Superjet (reg. 89001, c/n 95008), which had logged over 2,800 h on more than 1,550 scheduled flights since June 2011, left its aircraft fleet for ever in April 2013. It soon to be followed by RA-89002 (c/n 95010) and then other aircraft of the first batch. Two more Aeroflot-ordered SSJ100s (c/n 95029 and 95035) were sitting in the assembly shop of SCAC’s Komsomolsk-on-Amur affiliate early in June.

Aeroflot’s SSJ100s fly scheduled services to more than 25 Russian and foreign destinations. In Russia they fly to Anapa, Astrakhan, Chelyabinsk, Gelendzhik, Kazan, Krasnodar, Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Samara, St. Petersburg, Tyumen, Volgograd and Yekaterinburg now. Several flights are being made to Ukraine’s Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkov and Odessa as well as to Belarusian capital Minsk. European destinations include Bucharest, Budapest, Dresden, Copenhagen, Oslo, Vilnius and Zagreb.

As of 1 June 2013, Aeroflot’s Superjets had logged over 11,800 flights totalling in excess of 22,500 flight hours. A flight averages 2 h, and an average monthly flight hours per aircraft accounted for about 140 h in 2012 (the maximal flight hours were logged by RA-89010 in October 2012, when it accumulated 327 h on 158 services). As of 1 June 2013, the biggest flight hours had been logged by RA-89003 – 3,360 h on 1,780 flights.

All of Aeroflot’s Superjet 100s have the two-class 87-seat configuration with 12 seats in business class and 75 in economy class.

In frosty Yakutia

Another Russian carrier to have launched operation of its SSJ-100s in late January 2013 is the Yakutia air company that had ordered two aircraft of the type. The first one (c/n 95019, reg. RA-89011) made its maiden flight in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on 13 August 2012 and headed for Ulyanovsk for the assembly of its interior and for painting 4 days later. Its interior was assembled and the aircraft was painted in October 2012, and it was displayed at Airshow China 2012 in Zhuhai in November. Its delivery and ferry flight from Ulyanovsk to Yakutsk took place on 18 December 2012 and its first scheduled passenger flight on the Yakutsk–Khabarovsk line was conducted on 23 January 2013.

The other Superjet 100 intended for Yakutia (c/n 95020, reg. RA-89012) conducted its maiden flight in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on 25 November 2012, then it received its cabin interior in Ulyanovsk and was painted in the Czech Republic. Its delivery took place on 31 January 2013 when it was ferried to Yakutsk.  RA-89012 commenced its scheduled operations on 9 February 2013.

Since early February 2013 Yakutia’s SSJ100s started to operate the Yakutsk–Novosibirsk line and later on – their first international services to China: to Harbin (since 28 February) and to Beijing (since 2 March). Now the company also flies from Novosibirsk to Nerungri, from Khabarovsk to Magadan and plans to launch operations from Yakutsk to Yekaterinburg via Novosibirsk, from Irkutsk to Bishkek, from Khabarovsk to Petropavlovsk, etc.

The Yakutia-operated SSJ100s have a 93-seat cabin, with eight passengers seated in business class and 85 in economy class.

Two SSJ100s got Moskovia’s colours

Another Russian carrier, Moskovia, is going to become an operator of Sukhoi Superjet 100. Late in April, the SSJ100 c/n 95021 was painted in the colours of the carrier in Zhukovsky, Moscow Region. It was made last year for the Armavia air company but never entered service with it.

The aircraft first flew on 3 June 2012. By the end of the month, it had been prepared for delivery, having been given the Armavia paintjob, registration EK95016 and proper name Frunzik Mkrtchan. However, the carrier’s financial straits prevented the delivery. The plane had been stored at the SCAC’s facility in Zhukovsky since 21 July last year.

SCAC and Moskovia clinched the deal for two SSJ100/95Bs on 28 December 2012, which stemmed from their August 2011 memorandum of understanding providing for the delivery of three SSJ100/95Bs with two options starting from 2013.

On 16 April 2013, Moskovia reported the completion of converting four flying crews (eight pilots) to the new type and, three days later, the second flight attendant team. Painted in the carrier’s colours by early May, the SSJ100 c/n 95021 was given registration number RA-89021 and the proper name Yuri Sheffer – a Hero of the Soviet Union and Honoured Test Pilot (1947–2001), who had worked for Tupolev and the Gromov LII Flight Research Institute for may years (before that, his name had been borne by the Tu-154M (RA-85743) operated by Moskovia in 2006–09.

Mid-May saw Moskovia’s colours given to the second SSJ100 – the former first aircraft of the type in Armavia’s aircraft fleet (c/n 95007), which had been previously serialled EK95015. It got a new livery but retained the name Yuri Gagarin. It is the first production-standard Sukhoi Superjet 100 which completed its maiden flight on 4 November 2010. Its delivery to Armavia took place on 12 April 2011 with the first  scheduled flight a week later. After a bit more than a year of heavy passenger operations, by 4 June 2012 when it arrived at SCAC’s facility in Zhukovsky for maintenance, it had logged 896 flights amounting to a total of 2,213 flight hours. Due to a delay in the settlement of the carrier’s debt to the manufacturer, it resumed flying only four months later, in early October 2012. However, the second phase of its operation by Armavia lasted from 4 to 22 October 2012, after which the procedure of its return to the manufacturer commenced due to the airline’s financial problems. The aircraft was brought back to Zhukovsky, where it had sat before this spring. In all, Armavia’s SSJ100 c/n 95007 has logged 932 flights totalling about 2,300 flight hours.

The Moskovia air company established in 1995 on the premises of the Gromov LII Flight Research Institute has borne its actual name since January 2008. Now, it performs scheduled passenger services using two Boeing 737-700s and one 737-400 out of Moscow’s Domodedovo airport to the Uzbek cities of Bukhara, Karshi, Navoi, Namangan, Samarkand and Fergana and the Montenegrin city of Tivat as well. In addition, the carrier conducts chartered passenger and cargo operations using two An-12s.

Superjets for Indonesia

20 October 2012 saw the first flight of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 c/n 95022 – the first of the aircraft intended for Indonesian airline Sky Aviation that had ordered 12 airliners of the type from Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company, with the delivery to take place between 2012 and 2015. Less than a week later, on 26 October, the airliner with temporary registration number 97007 came to Ulyanovsk for the installation of its cabin interior and the subsequent painting. The work had been complete by early December, and the aircraft was given registration number PK-ECL when it was being painted in the Sky Aviation colours. The airliner was handed over to the customer on 29 December 2012, with its arrival to Indonesia taking place on 27 February 2013.

The first revenue flight between the Indonesian cities of Makassar and Sorong took place on 23 March 2013 and lasted about 2 h, with 67 passengers aboard. A bit later, operations from Makassar and Sorong to Djayapura and from Makassar to Luwuk commenced.

“This country is an archipelago comprising numerous islands. It is vital to provide transportation among them”, Sky Aviation Director General Krisman Tarigan said at the first SSJ100 acceptance ceremony in Jakarta. “The Sukhoi Superjet 100 is a super solution to the problem, while other planes operating these routes are not profit-making to Sky Aviation. In addition, many airports in Indonesia has short runways, which hampers the use of many types of aircraft, and the Sukhoi Superjet 100, which runway length requirement is less than 1,800 m, is just the thing for these peculiarities”.

The second Superjet designed for the Indonesian carrier, c/n 95027 (PK-ECM) performed its maiden flight in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on 27 April 2013 and had been in Ulyanovsk since 30 April for cabin interior installation and painting. On 29 May, it was ferried to Zhukovsky for handover to the customer. The third SSJ100 built for Sky Aviation, c/n 95031 (the future PK-ECN), took to the air on 3 June 2013 and is to start flying revenue services this summer. Another aircraft (c/n 95037) is being assembled now.

The first three airliners for  Sky Aviation have the 87-seat configuration (12 seats in business class and 75 in economy class). At the customer’s request, the remaining nine aircraft will be delivered in a tighter seating arrangement configuration with 98 seats, of which eight are in business class and 90 in economy class.

Laos got its first SSJ100

Laotian air carrier Lao Central Airlines flew its Sukhoi Superjet 100 (reg. RDPL-34195) on its first commercial flight virtually on the next day after its Indonesian colleague – on 24 March 2013. 60 passengers went onboard the first Laotian Superjet from the capital city of Vientiane to Laos’s second-largest city Luang Prabang on a flight that lasted for about half an hour. Soon afterwards, Lao Central started using its first SSJ100 on the scheduled Vientiane–Bangkok flight to the capital city of Thailand. In addition to flying to more cities in country, the carries has plans to launch operations to Vietnam’s capital Hanoi and another big Vietnamese city, Ho Chi Minh, as well as to Singapore and other Southeast Asian destinations.

The Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company and Lao Central Airlines made a contract for three SSJ100/95Bs with six options as far back as March 2011. Superjets are delivered to Laos in the 93-seat configuration (eight business-class seats and 85 economy-class seats).

The first SSJ100/95B designed for Lao Central first flew in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on 12 December 2012 and had been customised by early January in Ulyanovsk where it had been furnished with the cabin interior and the carrier’s livery. On 15 February 2013, the aircraft flew to Vientiane, where it was delivered to the customer in a ceremony.

The second Superjet built for the Laotian airline, c/n 95030, conducted its first flight in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on 20 May 2013 and has been in Ulyanovsk for cabin interior installation and painting since 25 May. It is slated for commercial operation this summer.

Mexico: Western Hemisphere’s launch customer

On 12 September 2012 another production Sukhoi Superjet 100 (c/n 95023) made its maiden flight in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, becoming the first SSJ100 built for a Western air carrier. The aircraft is the lead plane under the contract placed by Mexican carrier Interjet that has awarded 20 firm orders for the type to date. The supplier of the Interjet aircraft is Russo-Italian joint venture SuperJet International, which facility in Venice will be used for assembly of the passenger cabin interior developed by Italian designer bureau Pininfarina, painting of the aircraft and training of customer’s air and ground crews. For this reason, the unpainted aircraft flew in to Venice Marco Polo airport on 6 October 2012 following a small series of test fights in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. 

Mexico’s aviation authorities have issued the type certificate for the SSJ100 in April 2012, but the new passenger cabin for 93 economy-class seats will necessitate additional certification, due to which the delivery of the first of Interjet’s SSJ100s has been postponed to June 2013. Its regular services in Mexico are to begin in July. The training of Mexican air and ground crews in Venice commenced this spring. The Superjet’s Full Flight Simulator (FFS) has been delivered to SJI facility in Venice  in November 2012 (until recently, there have been two SSJ100 FFSs – at SCAC’s facility in Zhukovsky and Aeroflot’s training centre in Sheremetyevo).

The second Mexican SSJ100 (c/n 95024) first flew in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on 16 December 2012 and was ferried to Venice on 8–9 February 2013 for customisation. The third Interjet’s SSJ100s (c/n 95028) made its maiden flight  on 24 March 2013 and since 6 April it was tested in Zhukovsky with its ferrying to Venice  slated for June 2013.

Three more Superjets for Interjet (c/n 95036, 95034 and 95038) are now being assembled in Komsomolsk-on-Amur.

As of June 2013, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company and SuperJet International have had 179 orders for SSJ100s, of which 16 have been delivered to their customers. 72 airliners have been ordered by Russian carriers – UTair (24), Gazpromavia (10) and Transaero (6) in addition to Aeroflot and Yakutia. The deliveries to the former two may kick off in 2013–2014 and to Transaero in 2015. 107 aircraft have been ordered by foreign air carriers and leasing companies.