RuAviation

In mid-November, the Tu-204-100B passenger jetliner with registration number RA-64043 received a new corporate paint scheme of the United Aircraft Corporation. A video clip of this aircraft rolling out of the paint shop of the Ulyanovsk-based Spectr-Avia JSC on 13 November was published on the youtube channel of the user Aviatorovich-off.

The aircraft was produced in 2008 at the Aviastar plant in Ulyanovsk. Until October 2018, the aircraft was in service with Red Wings Airlines . Then the aircraft was placed in storage at Mineralnye Vody Airport, and since September 2019 – in Ulyanovsk. The aircraft is not yet fitted with PS-90A engines, but once airworthiness is restored, it will be returned to the airlines and introduced into the fleet of its former airline.

The magazine’s editorial staff also speculated that another Tu-204 may soon be restored and returned to service. This is a 2009-built Tu-204-100V-04 (RA-64050), which also flew for nearly a decade for Red Wings Airlines. After an aviation incident in 2018, it sat idle at Ufa airport for about five years, but was sent to Ulyanovsk in the first half of this year. Both Tu-204s are being restored to airworthiness by UZGA-Engineering, a company based at Ulyanovsk-Vostochny airport.

Initially it was planned that the first pair of Tu-204s and Tu-214s would be able to return to the lines this spring, but the work was delayed. However, the first Tu-214 (RA-64518) to be restored was successfully lifted into the sky on 22 September this year after work performed by KAPO Avia at Kazan airport. The aircraft was sent to Ulyanovsk for repainting and received the UAC corporate livery. On 11 October, it returned to Kazan, where preparations continue for its return to the lines.

Thus, the return of Tupolev passenger machines to commercial operations will be a significant contribution for Red Wings and Russian civil aviation as a whole. The efforts of the industry demonstrate the possibility of restoring and returning aircraft that have been in storage for a long time to domestic and international airlines.