Sukhoi Superjet pax review

[Gibon2]

Hello everyone, I haven't checked in here for a while, but I recently had the chance to fly from Sochi to Moscow on an Aeroflot Sukhoi Superjet 100, and thought I'd share my impressions.

The good parts:

Flight was on time (to the minute), smooth and uneventful, and - unlike the more lurid media stories tend to suggest - did not end in a flaming wreck.

The cabin was fitted out in standard modern style, seats were typical for shorthaul jets, legroom adequate (I'm 185cm tall), seating is 2+3 like a Bombardier C-jet or BAe 146. Really, from the inside, you couldn't tell the difference from a C-jet, although the Swiss C-jets I have been on are maybe slightly higher-tech looking. Headroom, overhead locker size, and general sense of cabin space is pretty much the same as a 737 or A320. There were no in-seat gadgets like power points or USB charging ports, and no overhead video screens (the safety briefing was done live by the cabin crew, but this was also the case for the Aeroflot 737-800s and A321s I flew on other legs of the trip).

I'd read that the Superjet is noisy, and maybe it is from outside, but in the cabin the noise level seemed to me pretty much the same as the A321 I took from Moscow a couple of hours later. I was sitting abreast the front of the engines on both flights. There were no strange or unusual noises (Sukhoi apparently does not use the dog-with-a-hacksaw hydraulic transfer thing that is a such a feature of the Airbus auditory experience).

I didn't use the toilets, so can't comment on them.

The bad parts:

Nothing really. The only thing I found slightly odd is that the windows seem to be set a few cm lower on the cabin wall than in other planes. I had to bend down to look out.

Conclusion:

Rather to my disappointment, the Sukhoi is just another anonymous modern twinjet. It's absolutely fine, but you could be on anything. I fear the age of airliner models with individual quirks and character is behind us.