"Aeroflot" will order another 100 Russian aircraft SSJ100

Megasdelka will not be hampered by the fact that the carrier uses them least intensively among Russian regular airlines.
10.09.2018
Vedomosti
Origin source
Aeroflot will order another 100 SSJ100 aircraft from the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, part of the United Aircraft Building Corporation, UAC), five people were told to Vedomosti that they are close to different sides of the deal. The agreement will be signed on Monday, September 10, the federal official adds.

The order will be made within the new strategy of Aeroflot, which provides for the creation of several regional hubs, explain two interlocutors. Now all flights are performed by Aeroflot through Sheremetyevo, there are no direct flights between other cities. But at the end of June, Vitaly Saveliev, the company's general director, said that the carrier would also create regional hubs. But how many and in what cities, he did not specify.

Representatives of Aeroflot and the SCU declined to comment.

SSJ100 little fly

The short-haul SSJ100 is the first civilian aircraft built from scratch in Russia. Aeroflot is its largest operator. In 2005, the company signed a contract with the GSS for 50 vessels. The first deliveries began in 2011. Now in the Aeroflot fleet 49 SSJ100, the latter will come this year. In total, the GSS produced 160-170 airliners in less than eight years.

Interlocutors "Vedomosti" do not specify who will be the lessor and what the delivery time is another 100 SSJ100.
  
But while the SSJ100 significantly loses to foreign aircraft on such an important indicator as the average daily flying. According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, SSJ100 flew 100 hours a month (3.3 per day) for Russian operators (not only airlines, but also state agencies, for example, the Ministry of Emergency Situations) in 2017, 95 hours per 2016 . At the same time, Aeroflot in 2017 was the worst commercial operator of the Russian airliner with an average daily flight time of 3.5 hours. Medium-haul Airbus and Boeing fly an average of 9-10 hours a day.

SSJ100 flew a little because of problems with after-sales service - high costs and lack of spare parts, as well as a long period of delivery. There have been cases when Aeroflot flew no more than a third of the fleet, Aeroflot managers admitted earlier. Aeroflot is not interested in operating the SSJ100 and regards this liner as a social load, three people close to the UAC complained. Indeed, Aeroflot develops popular long-range destinations, with medium-haul and more spacious Airbus and Boeing (150-170 seats) much more efficient than the short-haul SSJ100 (87 seats in a two-class configuration), admitted a person close to the Ministry of Transport.

Contract price

Ordering hundreds of SSJ100 will be Aeroflot's largest transaction in 10 years and the first such scale under Saveliev. So far, the largest contracts of Aeroflot in terms of the number of vessels have been orders for 50 aircrafts SSJ100 and Boeing 737 each, as well as for long-haul Airbus 350 and Boeing 787 (22 each). But all of them were concluded under the previous general director Valery Okulov.

100 SSJ100 cost over $ 3 billion, the top managers of two leasing companies told. Aeroflot SSJ100 does not buy, but leases for 12 years. "Sberbank leasing" for the delivered in 2016 10 airliners, it pays for each on average $ 187,000 per month for the delivered in 2017-2018.

"VEB leasing" 20 SSJ100 - at $ 171,000 per month. If we take the lowest level, the new contract will attract $ 2.46 billion of leasing payments.

But the new contract does not mean that the SSJ100 fleet from Aeroflot will grow 3 times. In 2023, the 12-year leasing terms for the first 50 liners that are delivered to the carrier from 2011 will begin to expire. Aeroflot has the youngest fleet in the world among large airlines, the average age of its aircraft is slightly more than four years, so it is unlikely to extend leasing of these vessels. The representative of Aeroflot does not comment on this.

Back to the regions

In 2015, after the departure of Transaero, Aeroflot merged its regional subsidiaries into one Rossiya airline and relied on flights through Moscow. For example, from the spring of 2013 to the spring of 2016, "Russia" reduced the number of routes from Pulkovo from 74 to 48, including international ones from 53 to 24; in Rostov seven ships of "Russia" were based, in the spring of 2016 there were only three of them left, the number of routes from Rostov dropped from 10 to 4, regional officials complained.

The traffic through the hub in Sheremetyevo was in the commercial interests of Aeroflot, says Fedor Borisov, a leading researcher at the Transport Economics Institute. In 2016 and 2017 years. Aeroflot had a record net profit in its history under IFRS (38.8 billion and 23 billion rubles, respectively).

But by a May decree, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered by 2024 to increase the share of domestic traffic, bypassing Moscow, to 50%. Last year their share was only 23%. "Aeroflot, together with its subsidiaries, occupies more than 50% of the Russian market" and more and more from commercial tasks passes to the performance of social functions, "says Borisov:" Obviously, the multi-regional model is less attractive for the airline. "

"For the development of regional traffic, you can find a more efficient aircraft than the SSJ100, but Aeroflot as a state-owned company is involved in supporting domestic aircraft construction," agrees ACRA analyst Alexander Guschin. It is difficult to assess whether the number of SSJ100 will affect the efficiency of the company, because their arrival will be extended in time; It is also unknown how Aeroflot will build a segment of regional transportation, adds Guschin.

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