Sukhoi Superjet conducts first passenger flight

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Armenian airline Armavia on Thursday completed the first passenger flight of Russia's newest commercial plane, the Sukhoi Superjet 100.

The plane, which was carrying 90 passengers, landed at Moscow's Sheremetevo Airport at 4.45 a.m. The aircraft was delivered to Armavia at a ceremony in Armenia Wednesday.

"The delivery of the first production aircraft is the key milestone of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 Project," said Mikhail Pogosyan, president of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation and general director of Sukhoi.

"The event opens a new stage of the programme — the beginning of commercial operation and full-scale serial production." The Superjet 100 is a family of medium-haul passenger aircraft developed by Sukhoi in cooperation with US and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.

The aircraft is capable of carrying 75-95 passengers up to 4,500 km. Armavia plans to use the aircraft to conduct flights to Moscow, St Petersburg, Sochi and Ukraine. Currently, there are 17 models in production at different stages of completion. The company plans to manufacture at least 14 Superjet 100s this year, and 25 in 2012, and intends to sell 35 per cent of them to the US, 25 per cent to Europe, 10 per cent to Latin America, and seven per cent to Russia and China.