Thursday 21 June 2012

Transaero buys Sukhoi planes


Russia's second-biggest airline is buying four Airbus A380 superjumbo planes worth $1.7 billion at list prices, and has placed an order for Russian-made Superjet-100s.

­Deliveries will begin in 2015 said Transaero CEO Olga Pleshakova. The long-haul A380 jets can carry up to 700 passengers, will operate on Asian, Central American and European routes, she said.

Transaero also agreed to buy six Sukhoi Superjet-100 planes, with deliveries in 2015-2017, worth $212.4 million, and also signed an option to acquire 10 more.

The plane, built using Western technology, is Russia's first civil aircraft designed after the fall of the Soviet Union.

A Sukhoi Superjet crashed during a demonstration flight in Indonesia last month killing 45 people, which industry experts said could hamper the plane maker's plans to secure more orders.

However, the airliner had no apparent technical problems, United Aircraft Corporation President Mikhail Pogosyan said on Thursday.

“According to the available data… there were no failures in the systems’ operation,” he said, adding that preliminary analysis of the on-board flight recorders has been completed.

Indonesian and Russian officials have confirmed the aircraft experienced no technical problems up until impact, but insisted it was still premature to say if pilot error caused the crash.

(Would YOU fly in a Russian made airplane?)

2 comments:

  1. The vast majority of people do not know the name of the aircraft manufacturer in which they are flying and they do not care at all. So your question is a no question. Being knowledgeble in aircraft technology and fabrication and being familiar with all aircraft potential problems related with their fabrication, operation and mainteance i am in position to say that all the russian manufacturer delivers safe anf relaible aircraft, at least as relaible as any western aircraft, ref antonov and tupolev. The only weak point come from the fact that after the breakdown of USSR many make shist compagnies formed up with minimum competence in aircraft operation and maintenance which caused many crashes.

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  2. Thank you for your input, it is much appreciated. I personally would not choose to fly in a Russian manufactured aircraft (neither would any of my Colleagues), however, that's just a personal choice.

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