Azimut Airlines has put into commercial operation a new SSJ100 passenger aircraft with registration number RA-89191. The aircraft was named “Belaya” in honour of the largest river in Bashkiria. So far, this is the first and only Superjet 100 delivered to domestic civil aviation in 2023.
Serial production of SSJ100 regional jets with SaM146 engines and foreign-made onboard systems ended with the construction of ten aircraft in 2022. Six of them were handed over to airlines in the same year and four more remained with the leasing company and were not put into service, these were Superjets with factory numbers 95227, 95228, 95229 and 95230. In September 2023, one of them, SSJ100 with serial number 95227, was painted in Azimut livery at Ulyanovsk-based Spectr-Avia.
On 7 November 2023, PJSC Yakovlev signed a contract for the delivery of this aircraft to Aviaprofleasing, which transferred it to Azimut on leasing terms. The aircraft received the registration number RA-89191 and temporary flight number 97027. The fleet expansion allows the airline to expand its fleet of aircraft, launch new destinations, including international ones, and ensure regularity of flights. On 24 November, after completing all formalities, the aircraft flew from Zhukovsky to Pulkovo and the next day started performing regular flights on Azimut’s route network from Mineralnye Vody Airport. In less than a week, the aircraft flew to Kaluga, St. Petersburg, Chelyabinsk, Tbilisi, Penza, Alma-Ata, Istanbul, Yerevan and Dubai.
In 2023, not a single SSJ100 aircraft left the workshops of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aircraft plant, as aircraft in this form are no longer produced. Currently, import substitution is being completed, and in the summer the aircraft, previously called SSJ-New, received a new designation SJ-100. The resumption of its serial production is scheduled for 2024 – in accordance with the comprehensive programme for the development of the aviation industry, KnAAZ is to build and deliver 20 new Superjets to airlines. Certification and flight testing of one of the key elements of the aircraft – the PD-8 engine – is currently underway as part of the flying laboratory.
Thus, out of the 2022 backlog, three new aircraft have not yet found their owners, and it can be expected that they will enter commercial operation by the end of this year.
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