Aeroflot to purchase 100 Russian-made SSJ100 regional aircraft

Russia’s biggest airline group’s fleet of Russian-made aircraft could reach 200 by 2026 (Aeroflot)

Aeroflot, Russia’s state-owned flag carrier, has signed a preliminary agreement for the purchase of 100 more Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ100) Russian regional aircraft, with deliveries planned to commence in 2019 through to 2026. The document was signed at the Eastern Economic Forum by Aeroflot chief executive Vitaly Saveliev and Yury Slyusar, president of United Aircraft Corporation, in the presence of Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation.

The complete contractual documentation “is to be signed upon finalising of all the essential terms of the contract and the appropriate corporate approval,” the airline says in an official statement.

With 49 SSJ100s already in operation, and 50 MC-21 advanced medium-haul aircraft on firm order, Russia’s biggest airline group’s fleet of Russian-made aircraft could reach 200 aircraft by 2026.

Like all the SSJ100s in Aeroflot’s fleet, the new aircraft will a feature two-class layout, with 12 seats in business class and 75 in economy.

“As a launch customer and the owner of the biggest SSJ100 fleet, Aeroflot has greatly influenced the project and Russia’s aircraft industry in general. Signing the latest long-term agreement is a new page in this collaboration, another joint input in the development of the aircraft production,” says Slyusar.

“We have signed the largest agreement in the recent history of the airline. The company will receive another 100 modern Russian SSJ100 aircraft. Aeroflot has always performed the important role of being the launch customer for Russian aircraft. Acting in the best interests of Russian aviation and the whole country is our absolute priority,” Aeroflot’s Saveliev adds.

Currently the airline operates 49 SSJ100s, with the 50th aircraft of the type to be delivered in the near future.

The first commercial flight of the SSJ100 was performed on June 16, 2011 and among the routes on which Aeroflot currently utilises the SSJ100 are domestic services to Belgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, Orenburg, Perm, Saratov, Sochy, Syktyvkar, Tyumen and Chelyabinsk, as well as the international destinations to Dresden, Vilnius, Gotheborg, Bucharest, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Riga, Sofia, Tivat amongst others.