Flights of the Rossiya airlines to Arkhangelsk will be suspended from May 1 to November 30, the press service of the carrier reported.
“The suspension of flights to Arkhangelsk is caused by the closure of the airport in Talagi to receive aircraft in connection with the planned reconstruction of the runway. Air travel in the Arkhangelsk region during this period will be based on the airfield Vaskovo, which due to its technical characteristics cannot take the types of aircraft operated by the airline,” – the report says.
On March 20, the Federal Air Transport Agency issued a certificate of conformity of the airfield Vaskovo. According to its technical characteristics, the airport is able to accept a limited list of aircraft types, including Embraer 170 and Yak-42. But the list does not include the SSJ100.
The takeoff weight of the Yak-42 is more than 57 tons, the maximum takeoff weight of the Superjet with extended range (SSJ100-95LR) is a little over 49 tons. The reasons why the SSJ100 cannot fly into Vaskovo airport are not mentioned in the airline’s report.
According to our source in one of the airlines operating Russian regional aircraft, despite the lower take-off weight of the SSJ100 compared to the Yak-42, the load on the runway surface is higher on the Superjet due to a smaller number of wheels on the main landing gear legs.
“The Yak-42 has four wheels per strut, the SSJ100 has only two, so the Vaskovo runway cannot accept these aircraft because of the greater pressure on the pavement,” commented the source.
