https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news ... eps-tu-134
Bizjet Operators Benefit as Russia Keeps Tu-134
- September 12, 2019, 7:01 AM
A handful of charter and corporate operators still fly Tupolev Tu-134 regional jets outfitted with VIP interiors.
They will benefit from the Russian Air and Space Force’s recent decision
to keep the type’s special-mission derivatives in service through to 2023.
To be able to keep its aging jets intact,
the military has talked the Kremlin into instructing local industry
to provide repair and overhaul services on the type’s vital systems until the model's retirement.
The last of 854 airframes in the production run came out in 1989.
Of those, more than 30 remain in service worldwide,
including about a dozen with civilian organizations.
This year on May 21, Russia’s Alrosa performed final scheduled service on the type in the country,
leaving Air Koryo and Syrian Air as the only airlines in the world that still operate the Tu-134 on regular passenger routes.
Meantime, Moscow-based air-taxi company Meridian—which operates an ACJ320, Gulfstream G450s, and Challenger 605s
—continues to run a single Tu-134VIP (RA-65737).
In addition, corporate airline Kosmos-Air keeps three such jets,
one of which, RA-65944, was seen taking off from the Vnukovo airport
when the RUBAE 2019 business aviation trade show was closing on September 13.
A pair of Tu-134VIPs remain in service with the Kremlin’s carrier “Rossiya.”
Explaining the reason behind keeping their Tu-134VIPs intact,
Meridian general director Vladimir Lapinksy and Cosmos head Vladimir Kamynin
said that these prove irreplaceable for charter services to remote destinations inside Russia
and into neighboring countries in Asia.
With their rough, Western jets cannot safely operate or are not allowed to by the local administration.
At the same time, the old jet cannot compete with dedicated business jets on most of the frequently flown routes
due to high fuel burn and noise levels.
This prompted Moscow-based Sirius Aero, an air-taxi charter company and longstanding Tu-134VIP operator,
to replace three such aircraft in 2018-2019 with the Challenger 601/850 series.
In his turn, Sergei Popov, general director at Perm Motors,
told that although the manufacturer discontinued making the Soloviev D30 series III in 1992 (3,050 copies built)
this engine’s gas-generator is still in production for industrial applications,
such as electric power generation and natural gas pumping.
So, new parts are available for the powerplants on in-service Tu-134s.
Besides, Perm Motors keeps a few used but still operable engines
as replacements or as a source of parts that have been discontinued.
https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news ... management
Tu-204VIP Operator Cosmos Seeks More in Management
- September 12, 2019, 7:13 AM
Russia’s “Cosmos Industrial Amalgamation” (also known as “Kosmos-Air”)
has taken delivery of its first Tupolev Tu-204-100 narrowbody (registration RA-64017)
following the airplane’s conversion into a customized corporate jet.
Today, Cosmos runs a fleet of a single Antonov An-12 freighter and three Tu-134s configured as corporate jets,
as well as its facility with a passenger terminal and an MRO station
located inside a common fence with the VIPPORT-run Vnukovo-3 business aviation center.
Red Wings, then an all-Tupolev airline, previously operated RA-64017 with the factory’s 210-seat standard cabin.
Red Wings recently replaced its Tupolevs with Airbus A321ceos.
Speaking to journalists at the RUBAE 2019 show in Moscow-Vnukovo airport,
Cosmos general director Vladimir Komynin said
this acquisition is a first step
in the implementation of a long-term development strategy that took a year to prepare,
ultimately gaining approval from the company’s owner,
the Russian Space Agency (“Roscosmos”).
An important part of the strategy is that Cosmos,
along with its primary function of transporting cosmonauts and Roscosmos officials
as well as technical and engineering staff from the industrial companies reporting to the agency,
will also develop as a general aviation and charter provider to offer on-demand services.
RA-64017 has been placed on Cosmos’s air operator certificate
with provision for these extended functions, Komynin said.
The new strategy calls for renewing the Cosmos fleet, adding more Tu-204- and Tu-214-series jets
and developing a maintenance program, a task to be accomplished in the 2021-2023 time frame.
The operator and Tu-204 manufacturer Aviastar-SP in Ulianovsk
are in agreement on plans to renovate and convert additional aircraft that may soon go to Cosmos.
The next airplanes to join in are RA-64044 and RA-64045,
which were delivered to the sister organization,
the flight detachment of the “Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center” based at Chkalovsky airport, east of Moscow,
which is shared with the defense ministry.
Both are Tu-204-300s, a smaller 138-seat version in factory layout, previously operated by Vladivostok Avia.
Following conversion into VIP jets at Aviastar-SP,
these were delivered to the new operator earlier this year under agreement with lessor IFC,
which owns the airplanes.
Intended primarily to transport cosmonauts between training and medical centers in the European part of Russia
to the Vostochny spaceports in Blagoveshensk and Baikonur in Kazakhstan,
the Tu-204-300s can also fly nonstop with a Roscosmos team to the Kourou Space Centre in French Guiana, South America,
from where Russian-made Soyuz launch vehicles have flown since 2011.
While continuing to operate out of Chkalovsky,
the two jets will formally be wet-leased to Cosmos.
Komynin further said that other Tu-204/214 owners are being approached
with a proposal to place their aircraft in management with Cosmos.
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