ISTAT Jetrader - Summer 2019 - 49

in the autumn. An order from Adria
Airways was cancelled in early April
with the airline citing concerns about
Sukhoi's commitment to a "fair
and stable long term partnership."
Deliveries of the 15 leased aircraft
were to start this year.
The forced landing and fire aboard
an SSJ100 in Moscow on May 5
appears to have cast additional doubt
upon the program. Yamal Airlines
cancelled its 10 remaining orders the
day after the accident. The airline
claimed this was the consequence of
"high servicing costs," but the timing
of the announcement is suspect.
Outside of Russia, InterJet is
still the largest operator with 22
aircraft, although a recent news
report confirmed that 15 of these
are parked. InterJet has claimed that
problems with engines, customer
service and parts availability have led
the airline to reduce the number of

aircraft in its fleet, suggesting that it
may remove the type altogether in favor
of additional Airbus A320s. Sukhoi
has outlined plans to retrofit several
of InterJet's later production aircraft
with "Saberlets" (winglets), which
could improve fuel consumption up to
3 percent along with the installation
of additional seats. Sukhoi agreed to
provide assistance with the sale of
the remaining airframes while InterJet
awaits delivery of 15 aircraft that were
part of the original contract.
Sukhoi is also moving toward launch
of a more indigenous variant that
some have dubbed the SSJ100R. This
effort intends to reduce the amount of
Western content that might be subject
to restrictions as Sukhoi attempts to
broaden the Superjet customer base
to countries like Iran, already under
sanction by the United States. The
most likely components targeted for
replacement are the SaM146 engines,

APU, landing gear and the inertial
navigation system. Any major changes
or component substitutions would
be a negative for the existing fleet of
SSJ100s.
Valuations remain challenged by
the uncertainty created by the situation
at InterJet and CityJet and the lack of
clarity of where those airframes will go.
The narrowing geographic distribution
to within Russia is not encouraging for
liquidity, and Russian-based Yamal's
cancellation weighs upon it further.
There appears to be a substantial
financial commitment by the Russian
government to keep the program
going as part of a larger commercial
aviation strategy, which includes the
Irkut MC-21, expected to deliver in
2021. This committment, however, is
a political strategy and not necessarly
an economic one, which implies that
support could be revised or withdrawn
at any time.

Jetrader

* S U M M E R 2 0 19 * 4 9
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ISTAT Jetrader - Summer 2019

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