Russian Aircraft

[Antoine]

Could you run a successful Airline using Russian aircraft??

Lets say the demand is there ( over 400 Daily PAX for routes) with some competetion but nothing major

TU-154M for short haul
iL 96M for long haul

Could such a airline model be used?

If anyone has tried this before please let me know

[gazzz0x2z]

It's far easier on short haul. Fuel costs are not prohibitive over there. On long range, errrrm, it's really dangerous to toy with russian steel. I never played the TU154(not my era), but I'm pretty sure I've read players being successful with them. Don't push them at their range limits.

While checking the stats, I do notice that the TU154M is a single aisle aircraft with a rather good speed, and a long turnaround time. Which makes it unsuitable for very short ranges. I would advise to keep it for ranges between 500NM and 1500/1600NM(just enough to make a red-eyes flight), and replace them around the Y2K. The TU204 arrives then, it's not such a bad plane, but it's still a poor man's 757, with lower range.

Russian steel also ages bad(with the exception of SSJs, and partially A148), so I would advise leasing them new, for 7.5 years, and replacing them before the first D-Check kills you. As they are much cheaper, their leasing cost should - at least in the first years - compensate for the increased fuel & maintenance costs. Later, not. A good western plane, 320, 777, 737, should be used up to the third D-Check(around 24 years of age), but russian birds, never above 16 years, and ideally not even 8 years(except for some recent models). It's a sound strategy if and only if they are vastly cheaper than their western counterparts to buy/lease. In current GW3, it's year 2026, the A148B costs 19M$, the MRJ70LR 31M$ - it's not enough to justify Russian steel. I've seen the MRJ go up to 60M$, and then, suddenly, the A148 makes a lot of sense.

TL;DR : can work, at least for the TU154, but be careful of aging planes and your niche(500-1600NM, I'd say, without being sure).

[wapp11]

I had a large fleet of TU-134s out of Denver once, I think it was around 150 or so.  Of course I had some other fleet types that weren't Russian, but if I had just the TU-134s I would have been making good money.  I was launch customer on 50 of them, so it made the cost really low.  However I only kept them until the second D check, being replaced by Fokkers.  In my current game world, I had some IL-18s early on and they performed well for what I used them for.  Had them for a 5 year lease while waiting for better A/C to arrive. I have never tried a strictly Russian airline.