Irish disliked Russian SSJ100

The Irish airline CityJet returns seven SSJ100 ships to VEB.RF group.
18.02.2019
Vedomosti
Origin source
The Irish airline CityJet on its website in the "Fleet" section has ceased to indicate seven SSJ100 aircraft. She leased them in 2016–2017. Now in the “Fleet” section there are only foreign regional jet ships: 25 Bombardier CRJ900 and 13 Avro RJ85.

CityJet works on the model of "wet" leasing: performs flights on its vessels for other airlines. All seven of its SSJ100 flew over the Brussels Airlines route network, with four aircraft in the last livery.

Five SSJ100 from November 10, 2018 to January 7, 2019 made the last flights for the Brussels-based airline, and then, according to flightradar24, flew to Irish Dublin or Shannon and have since been there.

Two more aircraft last flew for Brussels Airlines on August 29 and October 29, after which they went to Venice, where they still stand. In Venice, there is a European maintenance base and customization center for Sukhoi Civil Aircraft (GSS), manufacturer SSJ100.

CityJet still refused SSJ100, say top managers of two leasing companies. Some of these vessels can be supplied by VEB-Leasing of Azimut Airlines for its new corporate transportation project, said two people close to Azimuth. The agreement on the implementation of this project was signed last week by Azimuth, VEB-Leasing and the United Aircraft Building Corporation (the parent company of the manufacturer SSJ100 GSS).

“Ing” will offer various aircraft options for the project, says a person close to Azimuth. If “Irish” ships are better suited from the point of view of interiors, the choice may fall on them.

The representative of the GSS declined to comment. A CityJet spokeswoman, as well as the founder and owner of the airline Pat Byrne, did not respond to Vedomosti’s requests for several days. GSS President Alexander Rubtsov in December 2018 has already said that CityJet may refuse SSJ100.

CityJet was the only European operator of the Russian aircraft. Since 2011, about 180 SSJ100 have been produced. The vast majority of flies in Russia. The contract for the delivery of 16 SSJ100 with an option for another 15 CityJet signed at the end of 2015. It was planned that the Russian plane would replace in its fleet Avro RJ85 age, which by an average of 20 years. But Brussels Airlines refused to continue renting the SSJ100, explaining that due to the lack of spare parts, the planes were idle for too long. For the same reason, the SSJ100 and in Russia show low flying times — 3.3 hours per day on average per ship in 2017, against almost 10 hours for medium-haul Airbus and Boeing.


  VEB-Leasing considers the re-marketing of CityJet ships to Adria, the national carrier of Slovenia, as an option, an employee of the leasing company knows. GSS and Adria in 2018 signed a preliminary agreement on the delivery of 15 aircraft to the airline. Rubtsov said in December that in February - March it is planned to sign a firm contract. The representative of Adria did not respond to the request from Vedomosti.

A VEB representative claims that VEB Leasing did not participate in and does not participate in the supply of SSJ100 to Ireland. Airplanes for CityJet were bought and leased by a special orphan company (a type of SPV company, it belongs to a third party with which the asset producer and the lender are not legally connected - Vedomosti), which was financed by VEB, the employee of the leasing company knows. This is a representative of VEB does not comment.

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