Tu-204 airliners await modernization

Despite the downfall of air traffic in Russia and the respective drop in demand for new airliners, the country’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and its leasing subsidiary Ilyushin Finance Co. (IFC) sound optimistic about the future of the Tupolev Tu-204 mid-range aircraft family. Production of this type is gaining pace at the Ulyanovsk-based Aviastar assembly facility, and at the end of March the aircraft carrying the round serial number RA-64050 was handed over to the Russian charter carrier Red Wings. Already now the UAC and the IFC promise to shortly roll out the Tu-204SM modernized version.
As IFC general director Alexander Rubtsov explained, the first Tu-204SM prototype will be assembled in Ulyanovsk and will make its maiden flight as soon as 2010. The modernization program included the replacement of the aircraft’s Perm PS-90A engines with the PS-90A2 variant with a modernized hot section and a new control system. Compared with the basic version, the PS-90A2 will have 35% cheaper life-time operating costs, 50% better reliability, improved efficiency, lower noise and emissions. The modernized aircraft will have a two-member crew and a new navigation system that will enable it to land under ICAO Category IIIa conditions, a new communications system and a digital air conditioning system, IFC officials say.
PS-90A2 testing on a flying testbed should start in September, and the engine’s certification is to be over by the end of the year. The new aircraft itself is expected to be certified in 2010. Deliveries should start the same year; the first Tu-204SM operator may be Iran Air Tour, which has already placed five orders for the type. As Rubtsov explains, this contract may be extended to 25 more aircraft, while the possibility of launching licensed assembly of Tu-204SMs in Iran is also being discussed.
Transaero may become the first Russian customer – it is expected to convert 10 Tu-214 airliners already on order to the same amount of Tu-204SMs. The UAC and the IFC have also mentioned a possible order for 14 aircraft from the new carrier Rosavia currently being formed by the Russian Technologies corporation and the Moscow city authorities. In general, the UAC estimates the market for this modification at 50 aircraft.
Meanwhile, Aviastar expects to increase output of the existing Tu-204 variants. Since mid-2008, production of the Tu-204 in Ulyanovsk has been gaining pace. In 2008 the facility rolled out six airframes: two for the Vladivostok Air carrier and four for Red Wings. This year Red Wings has already received two aircraft; one example of the Tu-204CE cargo variant was handed over to Cuba’s Cubana de Aviacion airline.
Red Wings has become the largest Tu-204 operator with eight of the type in its fleet. In 2009 the air carrier expects to take delivery of four more airliners, and to sign another contract for nine aircraft of this type. By 2010 the airline plans to have a 19-ship Tu-204 fleet. According to Rubtsov, the airline has a definite edge by using Tu-204 for charter flights due to the aircraft’s 210-seat capacity – this is a more efficient solution in the current crisis conditions than 300-seat aircraft typically operated on charter routes.
Aviastar plans to roll out nine Tu-204s this year. Besides those airframes destined for Red Wings, three aircraft in cargo configuration should go to the Volga-Dnepr carrier. Through 2015, the UAC is expected to produce up to 100 aircraft of this type.
 "Starting in 2015, we are planning to break into the market with the new MS-21 mid-range aircraft," says UAC president Alexey Fyodorov. "But this doesn’t mean that production of the Tu-204 will be cancelled." He explains that as the first MS-21 modification to enter the market will have only 150-seat capacity, the 210-seat Tu-204 will not compete with it. "The Tu-204 family will be produced in Ulyanovsk for as long as it is demanded on the market," Fyodorov says.