The Sukhoi Superjet 100, the latest regional Russian jet

    The Sukhoi Superjet 100, the latest regional Russian jet, has secured its first European customer. The Belgian ACMI and charter operator VLM Airlines, will start operating the type in April 2015 on new scheduled routes that will be announced in the coming weeks.

    Until recently VLM was part of Irish regional airline CityJet (after the acquisition by Air France-KLM in 2007) until CityJet was sold to the German company Intro Aviation and VLM was split of again as a pure ACMI and charter operator. This week it was announced that a management buyout will be finished by the first week of November and VLM will continue as an independent airline, re-launching scheduled flights besides it existing ACMI and charter operations.

    In a first phase the Antwerp-based airline will lease two SSJ100-95LR aircraft from Ilyushin Finance with an option on two more and purchase rights on ten aircraft. Operating initially on two or three routes. For VLM the high comfort of the SSJ as a regional jet and the high performance of the LR (Long Range) version on short runways such as that of Antwerp International Airport, were main decisive factors.
Source: Flightglobal, VLM Airlines