With an increase in passenger traffic a fleet renewal has come to the first place for Russian air carriers. Many airlines operate planes designed 30 years ago and inherited from the Aeroflot Company. Used aircraft writting-off is a current tendency of most airlines. Over a quarter of the existing operated fleet is made of Tu-154 and Tu-134, which are scheduled for write-off due to their physical wear and tear.
According analysts' forecast, the regional Tu-134 will be actively written off in 2010–2012 and by 2014 the country would have not a single airplane of this type, and the maximal number of write-offs of the long-range Tu-154 will happen in 2018. The modernization of the regional fleet is a very complicated task for the Russian airline companies. The situation with the internal production market of regional airplanes is critical, and the import of foreign-made airplanes is restricted due to the absence of Russian certification of this type of airplanes.
The Russian air carriers rely on the new airplane Sukhoi Superjet 100 (model range: RRJ). Sukhoi SuperJet 100 is a family of regional airplanes with 70-100 passenger seats’ capacity. The airplane is equipped with two engines SaM 146, developed by joint venture Power Jet based on CFM56 – which is the safest and most fuel-efficient of all jet engines.
Thereby, the strategies of development of new business directions and gradual phasing-out of programs which are close to finalization come to the first plane for Avialeasing in 2007.
