And instead of a heart, a replacement motor – Newspaper Kommersant No. 217 (7418) dated 11/23/2022

As it became known to “Kommersant”, “Azimuth” this year for the first time in the history of Russian aviation will receive an SSJ aircraft with “second category” engines. The units were taken from the so-called replacement pool: a reserve for all Superjet operators. The transfer of the aircraft was supposed to take place earlier, but the Federal Air Transport Agency took a long time to figure out how to draw up the documentation. The plaque on the engines is small, and their installation will only affect the terms of service and general use. But Kommersant’s interlocutors in other airlines fear that, given the shortage of engines in the pool, their further installation on new aircraft may lead to downtime of the existing SSJ fleet.

As Kommersant found out, before the end of the year, Azimut will replenish its mono-fleet with the seventeenth new SSJ-100, having received it from PSB Leasing, and used engines are installed on the aircraft. As a source in the aviation industry told Kommersant and confirmed by interlocutors in the airline and the Ministry of Transport, the engines were taken from the so-called replacement pool. According to one source, this is the only new SSJ in 2022 delivered with engines that “have a small amount of plaque.” But in 2023, carriers should receive about ten more SSJs from the 2022 plan, some also with engines from the swap pool.

Kommersant sent a request to Irkut, UEC and UAC. Rostec, whose perimeter includes enterprises, confirmed that the engines were installed on the aircraft “from the available availability of spare parts.” “The power plants are in excellent condition, their use cannot in any way affect the operational characteristics and flight safety,” Rostec stressed. They added that the delivery details were agreed with the customer, “there were no complaints.” The head of the board of directors of Azimut, Pavel Udod, did not comment on the situation. Rostec did not answer the question about the engine flight time, specifying only that “all engines that are equipped with SSJ are proven and reliable.”

According to a Kommersant source, the transfer of the aircraft to the carrier was seriously delayed due to the fact that the Federal Air Transport Agency took a long time to decide how to draw up the airworthiness documentation for such an SSJ. As a result, an indication was left in the forms for the installation of engines of the second category, says a source close to the Ministry of Transport. In the Federal Air Transport Agency, the Ministry of Transport, as well as in PSB Leasing, Kommersant did not answer.

By the end of the year, airlines should receive at least five more SSJ-100s, one of which, remarketed, will also go to Azimut. Rossiya, which is due to receive two new aircraft, stressed that “they are not considering delivery from the aircraft manufacturer SSJ with used engines.” Red Wings confirmed that they expect two SSJ-100s in December 2022: “These will be new liners with SaM146 engines.” “We are also considering the possibility of obtaining SSJ-100 aircraft with engines of the second category,” the company added.

Rostec did not say how many new SSJs planned for transfer to airlines next year will be equipped with used engines. They indicated that, after the EU imposed sanctions on SaM146 engine supplier PowerJet in February, the production of new engines was suspended: “From now on, the production of liners uses engines that were available at the time of the imposition of sanctions.”

In 2019, there were 17 engines in the SaM146 replacement pool being created, and carriers complained about their shortage (PowerJet created a separate pool for Aeroflot). According to two interlocutors of Kommersant in the industry, there have been no more engines in the general reserve for three years. According to one of them, several more engines were sent to France for repairs and, due to sanctions, Safran (the French co-owner of PowerJet) never returned them. There were regular talks about increasing the pool, but Safran did not want to invest in expanding production, one of Kommersant’s sources explains, “therefore, it was not possible to increase the stock.”

In response to this, Rostec indicated that “at present, there are no systemic problems with the operation of SSJ aircraft.” “The situation with spare parts is tense, however, the indicators of fleet health and readiness for departure are at a high level,” the state corporation said, noting that in the third quarter, the average monthly flight time of the SSJ-100 fleet increased by more than 30% compared to the same period in 2021 . The regularity of departures remains at the level of more than 98%.

UEC is developing the PD-8 engine, which is planned to be delivered to SSJ New aircraft as early as next year, recalled at Rostec. At the same time, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said that the type certificate for the SSJ-100 with the PD-8 engine is expected at the end of 2023. “The issue of remotorization of the existing SSJ flight fleet on the PD-8 is also under discussion,” Rostec said.

According to the comprehensive program for the development of the aviation industry, by 2030, 314 new PD-8s should be produced in the Russian Federation, of which 284 will be installed on 142 SSJ New produced over the same period. The remaining 30 engines are obviously not enough to reengineer the general SSJ fleet, of which the carriers operate about 140 aircraft, as well as to form a replacement pool.

At the same time, according to one of Kommersant’s interlocutors, some carriers this year managed to increase the flight time on SaM146 engines from 2-4 thousand hours before overhaul to 5-6 thousand hours, and according to other sources – up to 7-8 thousand hours. Based on these data, Dmitry Voskresensky, a representative of Willis Lease Financial Company in Eastern Europe (the largest lessor of Rolls-Royce, General Electric and CFMI engines), notes that “with a good load, this will give 2.5–3 years of work before serious checks” .

It is difficult to predict the demand for the pool today, notes Dmitry Voskresensky, it depends on the future route networks of airlines. In international practice, a long-haul fleet (from three hours of average daily flight time) usually has one replacement engine for seven to eight aircraft in the pool, he says. If the “flight step” of regional companies averages about two hours, they usually need an engine for five or six cars: “Maximum wear occurs during takeoffs and landings.” However, we are talking about Western-made engines with a margin of 20 thousand cycles. If we take into account the SaM146 cycle, Mr. Voskresensky clarifies, then the pool should have “no longer 30, but 60 engines.” How much PD-8 is needed in the pool, he concludes, will depend on operating practices.

Aigul Abdullina