Russia May Be Left Without "Superjets"
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Import substitution for engines proved to be too expensive.
Airlines in the Russian Federation will not be able to replace the French engines on their SSJ-100 aircraft with Russian ones on their own and may face the loss of these aircraft. This was reported by Kommersant citing Aeroflot CEO Sergey Alexandrovsky.
“If there is no subsidy for the re-engining, this will lead to a gradual reduction in the fleet for all companies operating the SSJ 100,” he said.
The issue of the SSJ 100’s engine replacement has been under discussion in the aviation industry since 2022. At that time, the French company Safran, which was responsible for servicing and manufacturing components for the hot section of the SaM-146 engines, withdrew from its joint venture with the United Engine Corporation (UEC).
Installing Russian PD-8 engines in place of the SaM-146 on a single SSJ 100 could cost about 2.1–2.3 billion rubles (from $24.25 million to $26.56 million). At the same time, some of the publication’s sources consider this estimate to be too low. Specifically, the production cost of a single PD-8 in 2024 exceeded 1 billion rubles ($11.55–11.77 million) and may have risen since then.
Some of Kommersant’s sources have expressed doubts about UEC’s ability to ensure the necessary production volumes of the PD-8. Under the current version of the Comprehensive Aviation Industry Development Program, production of these engines was intended primarily for new SJ 100 aircraft, as well as to build up a reserve stock of powerplants.
Previously, UEC had predicted that nearly the entire SSJ 100 fleet would be decommissioned by 2030 due to the engines reaching the end of their service life. Following this, Rosaviatsiya extended the service life of the SaM-146, but this did not fundamentally resolve the issue. Aircraft of this type are already being phased out and will largely be out of service by 2030.
Of the approximately 160 SSJ 100 aircraft remaining in Russia, 78 belong to Rossiya Airlines (part of the Aeroflot Group). Another 25 aircraft are operated by RedWings. Azimut has 19 aircraft remaining, Yamal has 14, IrAero has 7, and Yakutia has 3.
Several SSJ 100s are operated by government agencies, while some are operated by corporate carriers: 7 by Gazpromavia, 4 with Severstal, and 1 each with Rusjet and Global Sky.
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