Page 100 - RusRPTFeb19

9.1.3 Aviation sector news
The volume air traffic in Russia reached a new post Soviet record in 2018, up by 9.8% y/y to a record-breaking 1.681mn flights, the Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsiya says on January 10. The previous record was set in 2017 with 1.531mn flights. "The traffic in upper airspace of the Russian Federation reached the record level of 1.681mn flights in 12 months of 2018; growth versus the year of 2017 totalled 9.8%," the regulator reported, as cited by Tass. Air carriers made 811,353 domestic flights from January to December 2018, up 9.45% against 2017. Russian and international airlines completed 869,856 flights on international routes (+10.13%), of, which 300,918 are transit flights across the Russian airspace (+6.91%). Airlines performed 128,582 flights last December (+6.1%). 66,879 flights were made on international destinations (+6.57%), including 25,242 transit flights (+3.92%). Domestic flights of air carriers rose by 5.6% to 61,703 in December 2018.
A pool of reserve engines for the Russian short-distance aircraft Sukhoi Super Jet 100 (SSJ-100) will be established by the United Engine-Building Corporation (ODK) and its parent state technology Agency Rostec, Vedomosti daily reported on December 4 citing the main buyer of the jets State Transport Leasing Company (GTLK). Previous reports claimed that SSJ-100 is not performing well due to problems with engines. Reportedly the SaM146 engines produced by ODK-Saturn (joint venture of ODK and French Safran-Powerjet) specifically for Sukhoi have a number of defects that occur already after 2,000- 4,000 hours of flight. The first maintenance is normally expected from 7,500- 8,000 hours. Now Rostec seeks to tackle the problem by pooling up reserve engines that can speed up the maintenance of malfunctioning SSJ-100s. Reportedly by January such pool will have 22 reserve engines, each costing about $6mn. Reportedly Russian national carrier Aeroflot, that has 50 SSJ-100 in its fleet and will order more, has its own pool of 18 extra engines, unnamed sources told Vedomosti. This year Russia's President Vladimir Putin has thrown his weight behind a RUB85bn ($1.5bn) investment into a new version of SSJ-100. Most recently Aeroflot announced it will place a new order for 100 SSJ-100s, which is part of the company's ambitious domestic regional expansion plans.
Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport climbed into the top 10 busiest airports in Europe in 2018 on the back of the World Cup traffic. London’s Heathrow
100 RUSSIA Country Report February 2019 www.intellinews.com