[Anonymous]

[AMcWhirter]

Irish-airline Cityjet has announced it will be buying no fewer than 15 of the Russian SSJ100 Superjet which is made by Sukhoi.

The deal was confirmed by exec chairman Pat Byrne a few minutes ago.

I am sure readers will appreciate the fact that Cityjet is acquiring some new aircraft. There has been much negative feedback on the Forum regarding its elderly BAe146s which the Superjet will replace.

LCY is a main operations base for Cityjet and, so far, these aircraft have not received certification to use this facility.

However, Cityjet is confident that the necessary certification will be granted and it plans to operate the Superjet at LCY in 2017.

http://www.superjetinternational.com/products/sukhoi-superjet100/specifications/

[sparkyflier]

I can imagine they got a very good deal on these that made any Bombadier or Embraer offering seems somewhat unappealing..

[AnthonyDunn]

Shame on Cityjet for buying aerospace products from a country that shoots down civilian airliners and then attempts to cover its tracks and denying the victims justice. This is morally repugnant.

[PeterCoultas]

Sorry Anthony but the idiots that routed MH over Ukraine were asking for this disaster – you may not like the russians but stupid adventurism will give nasty payoffs – as seems likely in Syria (both UK & russia)….do U want to fly over that area!

[AnthonyDunn]

@ PeterCoultas – 13/10/2015 19:13 BST

Your excuse just does’t wash. Having seen the entire Dutch video presentation on their findings, the Dutch are (towards the end) critical of the Ukrainians for not closing the airspace. However, there was also no announcement by the Russians that they had deployed a Buk SAM system into eastern Ukraine – and were prepared to fire it at anything that moved across that airspace.

If you look at Flightradar24.com you will see that routes now flown have altered considerably after MH17: eastern Ukraine is (self-evidently) a no-fly zone as is most of Syria and Iraq with Afghanistan now only crossed by a few carriers.

Interestingly, after the unannounced flight of Russian cruise missiles across Iran and Iraq into Syria, there are now major question marks being posed about the safety of Iranian airspace. Would you fly across Iran not knowing whether Putin was firing more cruise missiles across it? At least the US announced its intentions prior to the Iraqi debacle in 2003 so that the requisite NOTAMs could be issued. The Russians now have form over failing to issue such advice as well as provocatively and dangerously flying their military aircraft into and through civil airways without prior notice, their transponders off – and then blatantly lying about it afterwards.

[PeterCoultas]

Again sorry but no excuse – just sloppy incompetence by route planners….agreed I don’t want to fly through the mid-east at the moment…maybe safer to fly to aussi via usa but probably the only safe short route to asia might be over russia! Really a bit late now to alter flight routes!

The three main points made by the dutch are entirely appropriate.

As to notifications by military I wonder where you are coming from…the military don’t announce intentions – see afghan hospital bombings by the usa – just don’t route civilian traffic through such regions!

As I’ve said recently, drones around heathrow are bad enough without military conflict in the area!

[LuganoPirate]

Leaving aside the rights and wrongs, this is a beautiful aircraft with parts from the US, UK, Germany, Italy etc (so much for sanctions! ) and the shareholders are both Russian and Italian. With a weak rouble and a good product I think Sukhoi will do well selling this aircraft to western carriers.

[andystock]

The BA e190 has a seat width of 18 inches this as a seat width of 18.1 inches.

[AisleSeatTraveller]

regardless of the quality of the aircraft I am not sure that customer reaction to the knowledge that the aircraft is Russian would be positive (in Western Europe)

Just a thought

[WestBay]

Please do not bring a stupid politics everywhere. We all flying US made aircrafts despite the US navy downed Iranian passenger plane over the sea without any war. How about it? What about not flying Airbus just because Germany started WWII? Try just to enjoy a good news about a great new airplane being employed so we would have a better conditions to fly.

[Charles-P]

Interesting to consider if it is possible to live a truly moral life with regard to purchasing goods made in places or by people we don’t approve of, assuming one would wish to.

Depending on one’s politics and views I would estimate it is very difficult to do.

As many Arab countries for example have discovered it is nearly impossible to live in the modern world without using Israeli goods. Every mobile phone and laptop for example carries Israeli developed or produced technology.

[FDOS_UK]

Charles-P – 14/10/2015 08:45 BST

+1

[dutchyankee]

And many Israeli citizens would probably be aghast at how many every day items they use are produced with Arabian oil.

The world is so interconnected it is difficult these days to be completely moralistic. I fully understand AD’s point, but I am currently doing a project in Russia, so would be hypocritical for me to say I am shocked by CityJet or wouldn’t fly them due to having a Russian built plane. The majority of new Russian aircraft have components from all over the world including the US and Europe as already pointed out by LP. And we cant tarnish an entire people due to their maniacal leader. The Superjet is a good looking plane. IF VLM buys them I might end up on one.

[canucklad]

Charles-P & dutchyankee +1

I’d be a schizophrenic wreck, if I applied my Western liberalised morals to my purchasing decisions, and sadly the older I get the more jaded I become!! ….
Once, my naivety filled the clear blue sky with sunshine, those days of me having radical principled beliefs are now clouded over with a depressing overcast gloom.
And as the youth of today, seem to turn evermore into a device created virtual world I’m sort of glad I’m entering the fall of my life…..

In my youth I boycotted many products, dependant on what temperature my moral outrage thermometer measured …….including,

Jaffa Oranges
Cape Grapes
French Wine
Norwegian fish &Japanese products
Argentine beef
Plus many more….

Did I make a difference to my cause?…..
Well at least it made me feel better at the time…..

And what’s pushing my outrage meter up at the moment and since the incident……. .
A band of gangsters, whose actions immediately after the murder of civilians suggests to me, that they have a total callous disregard of humanity, or indeed demonstrated any civilized behaviour.
They wouldn’t look out of place in the bad lands of the Congo!!

Would a boycott of this aircraft make a difference to Czar Putin, not a jot…….
Would a threat of a boycott to the 2018 WC make a difference…….damn right it would.

Look at how “Herr Hitler” used the 1936 Olympic Games to his advantage!!!
Not that I’m suggesting Putin is a murderous dictator you understand.

And after all, is Boeing not supposed to have a stake in the project as well?

[Author]

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