I ran 2 very successful small carriers in the previous JA2 game, I entered in late in the game and there was no way that a long haul start up was going to work (I quit one because it got boring). And I was running EMB-120 and ATR42 aircraft which were making me fairly decent profits (enough to start to buy the aircraft). But as said above, they are newer and more popular American and European developments with low maintenance costs, it's probably the russian equipment that is costing you.