Gazpromavia took delivery of its first Sukhoi SuperJet 100LR. The aircraft was delivered to the customer in a handover ceremony held at MAKS-2013 airshow on August 29th 2013.

The firm contract with Gazprom Komplektatsiya for delivery of 10 SSJ 100LRs to Gazpromavia was signed in August 2011. The jets will be delivered to the carrier by the end of 2015. 

«It is of particular importance for us to deliver the first SSJ 100LR to Gazpromavia here at MAKS-2013, because this contract was signed two years ago at MAKS-2011», - Andrey Kalinovsky, President of Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC), said. «We hope that the airline will appreciate our jet’s advantages in the area of operational characteristics and comfort». 

Gazpromavia will be the first airline to put SSJ 100LR into service. The first SSJ100 LR (MSN 95033) features a single-class layout seating 90 passengers. The carrier intends to operate the jet on routes from Vnukovo airport to Sovetsky and Beloyarsky cities.

Gazpromavia is developing its commercial operations: the carrier performs regular and charter flights on domestic and international routes. The flexibility of Long Range version will allow the airline to optimize the operation of this aircraft type: the jets will be operated on short-haul and medium-haul routes (the jet’s range may reach 4500 km depending on the payload).

The training of Gazpromavia’s pilots, flight attendants and maintenance personnel for SSJ 100LR was started in May 2013. The personnel are being trained at SuperJet International’s (SJI) training centers located in Russia and Italy (at the SJI’s headquarters). As of today, 12 pilots, 23 flight attendants and 26 technicians and engineers have completed their training.

The range of SSJ100LR is 4 578 km, the required field length is 2 052 m. SSJ100 LR is powered by an uprated SaM146 engine (the engine’s takeoff thrust has been increased by 5%).