The Yakovlev Company of the United Aircraft Corporation organized a symposium of Superjet-100 aircraft operators in St. Petersburg, dedicated to discussing topical issues of maintaining airworthiness and import substitution. The event was co–organized by the largest operator of this type of aircraft - Rossiya Airlines (part of the Aeroflot Group).
In addition to the developer and operators of the aircraft, aviation equipment manufacturers, representatives of service organizations and aviation authorities became participants of the symposium. This is the second event of this format organized by Yakovlev – the first symposium was held in Sochi in 2021 and was held with the participation of foreign manufacturers of components of the Superjet-100 aircraft.
This year, the main topic of the symposium was overcoming the consequences of unprecedented sanctions imposed on the entire Russian air transport industry in 2022. In particular, representatives of PJSC Yakovlev and equipment manufacturers made reports on the localization and development of repair of foreign components, as well as on the development of new domestic components to replace imported ones. As of February 2022, 59 components of the Superjet-100 aircraft have been mastered in Russia, today there are 178 such components, and another 226 components are planned to be replaced by Russian analogues that are being created as part of the import-substituted version of the aircraft project.
"We need such events to maintain the high level of interaction that has become the key to the uninterrupted operation of the Russian Superjet-100. The joint work of PJSC Yakovlev and domestic airlines ensures a consistently high level of serviceability of Superjet-100 aircraft – in the third quarter of 2023, it not only did not decrease, but even increased compared to the same period last year. At the same time, we also manage to maintain the regularity of departures at a high level – about 98%. All this indicates that by joint efforts we managed to avoid a negative scenario of events," said Andrey Boginsky, Deputy General Director of the UAC for Civil Aviation, General Director of PJSC Yakovlev.
Within the framework of the event, the results of the operation of the park in 2022-2023 were summed up. The sanctions imposed have significantly changed the model of operation of Superjet-100 aircraft by Russian airlines. Thus, according to the Transport clearing House, in 2022 the passenger traffic of the Superjet-100 on international routes amounted to 4.8 million passenger kilometers, which is 263% more than in the pre-pandemic 2019. Among the new destinations for Superjet-100 aircraft are Harbin, Astana, Dubai, Istanbul, Yerevan, Tashkent, Hurghada, Tel Aviv, Bishkek and other cities abroad.
In addition, the symposium raised issues of increasing the life of the aircraft, updating the regulatory framework, developing the after-sales service system and retraining aviation personnel. Representatives of the airlines made reports on the current state of the fleet and the main issues arising during operation.
Since the beginning of commercial operation, the fleet of Superjet-100 aircraft has spent more than 1.4 million flight hours in the air. In total, over 820,000 take-off and landing cycles were performed and about 40 million passengers were transported.