Originally Posted by
FA10
recently Michael Cawley mentioned the interest for a 200 seat aircraft (to fully utilise 4 cabin crew).
A couple of days later the new Tupolew 204 (in a modernised version with a couple of tons less) had its first flight - however with no customer for the "new" type the future for Tupolew does not look good.
The introduction of a Russian type as a second fleet into RYR would mean a huge effort - however it could open a new market:
After 9/11 RYR made a bargain in buying discounted 737s when airlines stopped buying - and offered Boeing a lifeline.
Now a deal with Tupolew could safe Tu and give FR the option to enter the Russian market - huge potential for growth included!
The Tu204 doesn't give them any operating cost advantage over their 737-800s - far from it. The future for Tupolev does not look good irrespective of Ryanair's comments.
The Russian aircraft theoretically of interest is the now-under-development Irkut MS21.
I say "theoretically" because those of a cynical persuasion might suspect that a main motivation for Ryanair to talk to Irkut (or Comac in China) is to provide bargaining leverage to encourage Boeing to reduce their prices for a new order. Since Airbus unsportingly
declined to compete for a new Ryanair order (on the basis of how they were treated in the past), Boeing has no obvious competitor for a further Ryanair aircraft order and thus doesn't have any credible motivation to discount their prices.