(This was on the Cityjet thread but I'm replying over here as it's more relevant)
Originally Posted by
DIBO
Not an obvious choice, but on the other hand not a complete jump in the dark. A lot of SSJ100 equipment is from western (even European) partners. For the engines, for example:
- The Customer Support Center (CSC) is based in France
- Distribution Centers (to date, two in France and one in Russia) supplying all spare parts.
- MRO Centers (to date, one in France and one in Russia).
- Customer staff training, with two complete training centers, in France and Russia.
From the ANR base that's 5 - 6 hrs by car (the distributioncenter in France, that is :-) )
I suggest the choice is down to three factors:
- Price
- Price
- Price
Sukhoi and their lessors are DESPERATE for a European customer and I am sure the deal reflects this. Why else would an airline choose an unproven aircraft from a sanctions-hit country? Or conversely, why would a lessor of a proven aircraft type such as the E190, with plenty of demand for the product, offer any kind of sweet deal to what is effectively a startup? A typical lessor of Western equipment will be looking for a security deposit of perhaps 3 months rental. I'd speculate that Ilyushin Finance will have settled for little or no security deposit and potentially even a power-by-the-hour deal. I note that a VLM exec is
quoted as saying they want to get 300 hours a month utilisation from the aircraft. That's - to say the least - pretty ambitious.