Russian airlines
 

I am planning a trip to Russia in Sept/Oct, starting at St Petersburg and ending up around Volgograd. I am quite happy to take overnight trains a lot of the time as it will save on hotels, however it may sometimes cut a journey short to fly. Having been a lurker on here for a while I have heard many bad things about Russian airlines, even Aeroflot as some flights branded as Aeroflot flights are actually operated by subcontractors.

Are there any Russian airlines the denizens of this newsgroup would choose to fly on, or am I exaggerating the level of risk?

I've only been to Russia once, in 2008, and only flew between St. Petersburg and Moscow. For these flights I chose what at that time was a relatively new airline, Sky Express. Back then they had brand new Boeing 737s that were maintained by Lufthansa. Good experience all around with the airline itself, but Russian airports are another matter altogether.

SKY EXPRESS

While Russian built aircraft may not have the same record as western built aircraft it does not meabpn that aeroplanes are falling out of skies every day in Russia. Considering the number of flights each and every day aviation has a very good safety record.

Many Russian airlines have Western built aircraft and safety records as good as western airlines. Just consider the number of 'unscheduled hull retirements' Air France has had over the last 30 years. .

The Russian authorities appear to be maintaining an acceptable level of safety. I wouldn't think twice before taking a flight in Russia.

Having lived in Russia since 1999 and flown on Russian carriers likely over a thousand times with many internal flights.... still here!

You'll be fine.

Long distance Russian trains are a fabulous experience, why go round the country at 35,000 ft when you could be enjoying the train ride?

As for Russian airlines, well, hmmm, maybe the oversight isn't all it should be, but let's not forget that measured against the total pass/miles flown on Russian airlines their record of fatal accidents wasn't, when I last looked, much different from many countries whose aviation is usually regarded as "safe" although it sometimes isn't.




"Tu parle de moi?"...... "Non, bien sûr, je parle de ta soeur jumelle."

These days the old Russian-built aircraft have just about gone. I don't think there's any Tu-154 flying in public passenger service and maybe only a couple of Tu-134s. Not sure about Yak-42 but again not many left. The vast majority of aircraft flying in Russia are Boeing or Airbus.

Russia, particularly Aeroflot, have perhaps the worst safety record going but when one reads in to just some of the accident reports many were during the soviet era when Aeroflot might have been flying a military contract, perhaps in a rotary wing, and in the crappiest of weathers to the crappiest of airports.

I haven't flown domestically within Russia, only Austrian to/from LED (SPb), but I have flown domestically, and significantly, within Ukraine flying on such types as AN24, Tu134, Yak42 and AN140.

The AN24 is a piece of crap, that is the type I most flew on, and I understand, I don't know for sure, that it's single engine performance ain't all that.

The Yak42, one was served a cup with a tea bag in before another hostie came round with an old-fashioned kettle of hot water that looked like she'd just taken from a gas ring.

The Tu134, ODS has the bumpiest runway I have ever experienced, it was a pretty empty flight, the seat backs didn't lock in to position, so as we landed and reverse thrust applied the seats went forward in a domino effect ... I had to climb out of my window seat.

The AN140 ... Oh that was lovely, a delayed evening flight, a few of us pax had become friends and were having a laugh, we landed in a horrendous snowstorm at OZH, the runway wasn't visible for snow, but by then we were having such a laugh we didn't really care!

When I recently read the headline of a B737 crash in Rostov you might imagine I thought "here we go again" and to my, then, surprise it wasn't an FSU airline ... Just shows you, you never can tell!

I would generally agree with the above comments, save for a few words of warning about the overnight trains. Be prepared to share a compartment with another person or three, depending on which class you're travelling. Make sure the compartment door is well locked - there have been reports of thieves operating on the long-distance overnight trains, especially St Petersburg to Moscow and vv because a lot of foreigners use it. I have never experienced it myself, but there was an incident on one of the trains I was on.

I never enjoyed the overnight train journeys myself and I did many of them, but we're all different, so whatever floats your boat!

I believe Aeroflot has the Sukhoi Superjet. 50 once all are delivered. It doesn't have a stellar record so far with two unscheduled hull retirements on demonstration flights. Only time will tell if it will meet Western safety records in service.

LHR-SVO-TAS
 

A few years back I flew with Aeroflot from London to Moscow and then on to Tashkent (rtn.). All flights were on Boeing aircraft and perfectly pleasant. My opinion is in no way influenced by having been bumped from Economy to Business due to overcrowding.
The only issue came when the Russian check-in desk assistant at Heathrow took several minutes to accept that although my Uzbek visa wasn't valid until the next day, that this was fine, as the second leg of my journey wouldn't arrive until the small hours the next day. She looked at me like I was trying to pull a fast one.
Frankly I was more concerned when I realised my internal Uzbekistan Airways flight was on a Tupelov!

Given the scale of SU and the challenging environment they operate in, they've actually got a good record. It's been almost 20 years since SU mainline lost a hull. The only soviet aircraft in operation is the SSJ - but test flying whilst fatigued was never going to work and flying IMC below MSA with EGPWS switched off is going to end in tears regardless of the type. The SSJ is a fairly robust machine.

Aeroflot and S7 would be the only two I'd fly on. Most of the babyFlots have shut down thankfully. S7 also have a modern fleet however their recently safety record isn't fantastic.

The Sukhoi Superjet is wholly a modern Russian type - the Soviet Union ceased to exist in1991. That's 25 years ago.

Russian carriers, and others like Kazakhstan, are fine, and feel a lot better handled than some. Most of the crews are ex-military. The old Soviet types have indeed pretty much gone, but there are still a few around if you know where to look - it's been a few years since I was on a Tupolev, but they were notably well built and up to standard. On routes to Western Europe the cabin service can beat the competing western carrier hands-down. I always look forward to the flights.

I'm looking forward to the SSJ coming to London City with Cityjet next year.

Being ex military is neither here nor there IMHO. Many of Turkish Airlines pilots are ex military and they have had way more than their fair share of prangs.

I agree, I recall both the TU-134 and the IL-18 being a joy to fly on - the former being the only aircraft I've encountered that had skylights in the bogs !


http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviatio.../7/2802749.jpg

For those who thought the Tu154 is like something from a past generation, here's inside the cabin of one, with a pleasant multilingual Rossiya flight attendant beyond. Looks pretty well up to standard to me :)


Incidentally, Russian crews are known within the country for competence in landing well, and to tell the truth I never had anything other than a greaser from them on the former Soviet types, even landing in a blizzard, which of course they are experts in. The substantial and solid landing gear of the old types of course helps

Greasers are lovely, but if they're chewing up half of the runway to achieve them then I'd rather come back down to earth with a bump and get the thing slowing down.

I think Russian crews, like most of us, have a pretty good understanding of that, something which most of us got a handle on in our Cessna 152s before our first solo.

I disagree. I'm some parts of the world long landings, unstable approaches and over runs are an almost weekly occursnce. Right place, right speed, right time, every time is what it's all about. Getting a smooth touch down is just a bonus.

before they moved to Changi SQ arrivals at Paya Lebar used to be like something out of Top Gun - hammer it onto the tarmac as ahrd as you could - but there was a nsaty bump half way down the runway as I believe Bangladesh Biman discovered one day...................

And what is so wrong with a TU154 airliner ... that is built like a brick toilet, it saved these passengers and crew?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alrosa...ise_Flight_514