Visitors to Sukhoi’s Superjet SSJ100 regional airliner on display here at the Paris Air Show can get an expert guided tour using a new application that uses beacons to transmit information to their smart phones or tablets. As they move around the aircraft, the app presents them with descriptions of what they are seeing.
This innovative approach vividly illustrates the lengths to which Sukhoi and its Superjet International joint venture with Alenia are going to in their efforts to reinvigorate sales of the narrowbody. At the same time, the Superjet team is stepping up efforts to provide new sources of financing for customers.
Superjet International has put together a finance package through a multilateral export credit guaranteed by the COFACE (France), SACE (Italy) and EXIAR (Russia). This just won the Export Credit Deal of the Year Award from Air Finance Journal.
Earlier this year, Sukhoi parent company United Aircraft Corp. agreed to set up a new leasing group to encourage Superjet sales in China. The Russian group is partnering with China’s New Century International Leasing and Xixian New Area Administrative Committee.
Another marketing initiative aimed mainly at the domestic Russian market involves an injection of around $60 million in government funds to the Russian State Transport Leasing Co., which will arrange operating leases for local airlines serving “socially important routes,” such as Crimea and Kaliningrad.
It is hoped that this will help firm up customers for around 25 to 30 “white tail” aircraft that have already been produced at UAC’s factory at Komsomolsk-upon-Amur, but which don’t yet have customers. Annual production rates were recently reduced to 36 from 45, and the plant is now working on its 100th airframe.
The 55 Superjets delivered to date have gone to the following operators: Aeroflot (19), Interjet (15), GazpromAvia (8,) Center-South (3), PT Sky Aviation (3), Red Wings (3), Yakutia (2), LAO Central (1) and the Russian interior ministry (1). LAO and PT Sky are currently not flying their aircraft and Superjet is looking into options for leasing these airframes to other carriers.
Mexico’s Interjet, which is Superjet’s Western launch customer, was set to get its 16th aircraft on the eve of this week’s Paris show, and the aircraft on display here at Le Bourget is its 17th. According to Superjet International CEO Nazario Caucegli, the manufacturer expects to have delivered all 20 of Interjet’s firm orders by the end of this year, as well as the first of 10 options that it holds. The remaining nine aircraft are set to follow next year.
Some SSJ100 operators have complained that the aircraft is still not matching promised operating costs. One airline spokesman, speaking to AIN on condition of anonymity, said that its actual costs are more than three times as expensive per hour. The SSJ100 typically seats 83 to 87 passengers in a two-class configuration, with a maximum cabin configuration of 103 seats.
Caucegli told AIN that the SSJ100’s fuel consumption is around 10-percent lower than that of its competitors, but he acknowledged that prices for spare parts have not yet stabilized. “More than 60 percent of the aircraft has been supplied by Western companies, so eventually there is no reason to think that parts will cost more than those on Western aircraft,” he said. “Some of the airline concerns come from the fact that they don’t know us very well yet.”
Another problem is a small number of maintenance, repair and overhaul centers, with the Sukhoi’s base at Zhukovsky, near Moscow, being the only one available in the whole of Russia. Compared to the network of routes flown by the SSJ100, which now comprises more than 130 destinations in 30 countries, this is somewhat lacking.
Interjet’s airplanes are maintained under an exclusive SuperCare technical support scheme from Superjet International, which has proved helpful as it ensures a high degree of fleet readiness. Figures available for 2014 indicate that SuperCare helped the Mexican airline surpass Aeroflot on daily utilization of operable airframes, with 5.77 flight hours against 4.25, and on-time performance of 98.9 percent against 95.4 percent. At the design stage, Sukhoi promised airlines that its airplane would be able to log 3,000 to 3,300 hours annually with dispatch reliability exceeding 99.2 percent.
Red Wings complained about what it views as high costs for training flight crew, which it says have been as high as $134,000 per pilot. Caucegli said that training costs will be reduced as the SSJ100 fleet and the number of available training providers increases. Currently, training is available in Moscow and in Venice, Italy, where Superjet International is based.
“We are conscious that it will not be easy to penetrate a challenging market where competition is fair but fierce,” said Caucegli. “But we are convinced that we have many unique features and advantages, such as a huge cross-section that is comparable to a narrowbody airliner. We have a very competitive offer not only for the quality of the product, but also a very competitive price and also attractive financing conditions.”
Meanwhile, UAC and Alenia’s parent company, Finmeccanica, have acknowledged that they are holding talks to discuss a possible restructuring of the Superjet International joint venture. UAC continues to enjoy strong support from the Russian government for a program whose slow sales last year contributed to another year of financial losses–around $72.5 million on revenues of $567.8 million.