Made in September 2007, the order of two SSJ100s by Armenian airline Armavia with three more options did not turn many heads at first. By then, 110 advanced airliners had been ordered (in the form of both firm orders and options) by several air carriers, including the foreign launch customer in Italy.

A considerable discount to the list price was offered to Armavia, as it was offered to other early customers. Besides, Armavia ordered the configuration close to the baseline one, i.e. lacking expensive trimmings. The planes were leased through Russian company VTB-Leasing. Under the contract, the first aircraft was to be delivered as far back as late 2008, but the delivery slipped by far just like the delivery to Aeroflot did. Some of the orders considered to be firm were put on the back burner or cancelled altogether, as the SSJ programme was slipping further behind schedule. Suddenly, Armavia, along with Aeroflot, found itself the launch customer, probably, to its own surprise.

The first production SSJ100-95B (c/n 95007) first flew on 4 November 2010 and then underwent the certification check test programme held for the first time as part of certification by the Interstate Aviation Committee’s Aircraft Registry. During the tests, a production-standard aircraft had to log at least 150 flight hours on standard routes. The Superjet certification check tests commenced in December 2010, following Aircraft 95007 ferry flight from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Zhukovsky in the Moscow Region. With the tests completed, the plane returned to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where it was subjected to final improvements before its delivery.

Participation in a long-term certification check test programme, which lasted for almost two months, came as a very useful breaking-in to the advanced plane. It allowed the troubleshooting of the most obvious teething troubles inherent to the first production aircraft and benefited the beginning of its operation further down the road.

On 19 April 2011, the aircraft flew from the manufacturer’s airfield in Komsomolsk-on-Amur to the customer’s base airport, Zvartnots in the city of Yerevan. In Armenia, the SSJ100 registered as EK-95015 and named Yuri Gagarin was given the red-carpet treatment. The first commercial flight of the new aircraft took place as soon as the next day after its delivery, 21 April. In the very beginning of its operation, it was clear that the carrier was not going to go easy on its first Superjet 100 just because it was a new plane. The aircraft had conducted services to seven aircports in five nations (Moscow, Aleppo, Athens, Donetsk, Odessa, Simferopol and Tehran), which became a mini-pattern of its subsequent operation, during which it flies to Russia, Ukraine, other European countries and the Middle East.

The SSJ100’s hour of triumph in service with Armavia came in mid-June when the airline decommissioned as many as two A320s. Coupled with the seasonal hike in the number of the carrier’s flights, this stepped up the operational tempo for its remaining aircraft up to an average of two return flights a day. Many remote European destinations, which had been handled by the airbuses before that, fell on the SSJ100. As a result, 4–5-hour flights to Europe out to 2,500–3,500 km became a routine, virtually daily job to the plane. The services to Amsterdam, Barcelona, Lyon, Marseille, Rome, Venice and Zurich became the Armenian Superjet’s standard routes.

The advanced Russian-built airliner’s first three months in the commercial operation by Armavia were very fruitful. The diversified route network enabled the plane to be tested not only on short regional services, but on long ones as well. The Superjet flew to 20 airports. It mastered its European lines that proved the range stated by the manufacturer. The aircraft also proved its ability to operate in the adverse climatic conditions of Armenia’s hot mountainous terrain. The aircraft logged 200-plus flight hours as soon as its third month of operation, which is good for a new aircraft in the class.

In October, the Armenian Superjet flew from Yerevan to Moscow’s Vnukovo and Domodedovo, to Samara, Ufa, Tbilisi and over 10 cities in the ‘far abroad’ – Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin, Lyon, Marseille, Venice, Aleppo, Beirut, Dubai, Tehran and Tel Aviv. It had conducted more than 530 operations with a total of 1,300 flight hours by the end of November. In the first six months of its operation, its average monthly flying time has accounted for about 180 flying hours (the maximal flying time – 205 hours – was logged in July 2011) with an average flight slightly exceeding 2.5 h and an average daily flying time being slightly less than 6 h (an average of five services are flown every two days). Armavia’s SSJ100 did not fly only five days in October, which indicates a rather high degree of operability and reliability of the carrier’s only aircraft of the type. The second Superjet (c/n 95009) is to be delivered to Armavia in 2012, if all goes to plan.

The Russian flag carrier, Aeroflot, got the first of the 30 SSJ100s, ordered in December 2005, in mid-June 2011. New regional jet with c/n 95008 and registration number RA-89001 named after Mikhail Vodopyanov conducted its first commercial service from Moscow to St. Petersburg on 16 June and then launched operations to Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and then Ufa.

Unlike the first production SSJ100, which was delivered to Armavia and had been debugged during its 150-hour certification check tests, despite the fact that Aeroflot’s first SSJ100 did not get to the customer soon after its maiden flight on 30 January 2011, it had completed only a limited number of acceptance tests. Possibly, this was a reason for the carrier having to ground its new plane several times in the initial stages of operation to fix problems. For instance, following an aggressive start in June (46 flights performed during the first 12 days, with almost 80 flight hours logged), RA-89001 flew only for 14 days in July. Nevertheless, it has no longer encountered considerable technical problems since later July, which has enabled it to fly up to eight services a day without any delays worth mentioning.

The intensity of operation of the new-type aircraft by Aeroflot increased further in the wake of the delivery of its second Superjet late in August. The aircraft with c/n 95010 conducted its maiden flight in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on 11 July and then was headed for Ulyanovsk to be painted in the customer’s livery. Having been given registration number RA-89002 and named after Dmitry Yezersky, it was delivered to Aeroflot on 25 August and conducted its first scheduled flight as soon as two days later. The new Superjet’s flying time exceeded 230 fight hours during the very first month in service, with the two aircraft flying up to 14 services a day during September and October.

The Moscow–Astrakhan route, which was flown in the first fortnight of September, was added to the existing lines to Nizhny Novgorod, St. Petersburg and Ufa. On 1 October, the first international flight, Moscow–Minsk, was added to the schedule of Aeroflot’s SSJ100s, and the services to Chelyabinsk (the SSJ100s had flown to Yekaterinburg until 17 September) and Kazan started on 3 October and 24 October respectively. The Superjet’s reliability and operability are highlighted by the fact that there were only two days in September, when neither of Aeroflot’s SSJ100s took to the sky, with no such days in October.

The third Aeroflot-ordered airliner (c/n 95011, RA-89003) made its maiden flight in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on 11 September 2011 and has been delivered to the customer on 7 November, entering regular services since 8 November. By the end of November, the Aeroflot’s Superjets had performed more than 1,000 flights, logging 1,600 flight hours. The 1000th commercial flight milestone was passed on 23 November 2011.

An average flight of the Superjets on the Russian flag carrier’s routes lasts for about 1.5 hours (the longest flights last 2.5 hours in services from Moscow to Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and Astrakhan). The average flying time per plane in Aeroflot stands at a bit less than 6 h (on the average, each of the aircraft flies four operations a day). The first SSJ100’s average monthly flying time has accounted for about 180 flying hours over the four months in service, and the second airliner’s average flying time during the first two months of its scheduled operations equalled about 210 h (the average monthly flying time per two-aircraft fleet is slightly less than 200 h per plane).

Aeroflot will have been able to receive several more Superjets before year-end. In October, there were seven more Aeroflot-destined aircraft in final assembly. The fourth Aeroflot’s SSJ100 (c/n 95012, RA-89004) first flew in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on 7 November 2011 and was to be followed by 95015, 95013 and 95016 soon. The fuselage of the 13th production aircraft (c/n 95019) was brought to SCAC’s final assembly shop in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on 1 October 2011.

SCAC is making efforts to step up the output rate hampered so far by delayed deliveries of production-standard SaM146 engines. In September, Igor Vinogradov, SCAC first vice-president for development and certification, said that extra jobs would be created in the final assembly shop, which would allow 10 aircraft to be assembled there instead of six. In addition, aircraft components will be brought to the shop pre-assembled, part of wing panel assembly will be handled by KAPO plant in Kazan while the assembly the cabin interior will be carried out in Ulyanovsk starting with the ninth production aircraft (c/n 95015). Owing to the measures being taken, “28 SSJ100 planes are planned for production next year”, Igor Vinogradov said.

Along with the continued Superjet deliveries to Aeroflot and Armavia in 2012, SCAC and the Superjet International joint venture plan to start deliveries to new customers that might include Russian carriers Yakutiya and UTair and the SSJ100’s first foreign operators from Mexico, Indonesia, Laos, etc.