Ukrainian AeroSvit airline and Antonov design bureau expand the boundaries of flights

On the first day of April, the aircraft of AeroSvit company, which fleet has recently been supplemented with modern turbojet aircraft of a new generation AN-148 created by the famous Antonov design bureau, made its first flight on the route Kiev-Budapest.

For the first time Antonov AN-148aircrafts arrived in the AeroSvit company in summer 2009. The first commercial flight under the flag of AeroSvit occurred on a route Kharkiv-Kiev on June 2, 2009, beginning the active exploitation of the liner for the domestic flights from the Ukrainian capital to Lviv, Odessa, Simferopol and Kharkiv. Since last December, after the first Kiev-Moscow flight (Sheremetievo), began to use AN-148 also on international flights, particularly since the start of summer navigation - on such busy routes as Odessa-Istanbul, Kiev-Moscow (Vnukovo airport) and Kiev-Vilnius.

According to the general director of AeroSvit Eugene Treskunov: "In the terms of market, AN-148 is an excellent product. Airplane justified the expectations of the company on all fronts - both domestic and international". He also stressed that before the end of April, an air fleet of AeroSvit will be reinforced with another AN-148.

As it turned out not only the AeroSvit company shared the view of reliability and high performance of AN-148 aircraft. So in 2009, Bolivian President Evo Morales preferred the An-148 as a presidential aircraft. On August 17, 2009 administration of the President of the Russian Federation chose AN-148 for the transporting of the main politicians of the country, rejecting the offer to acquire Sukhoi Superjet 100 and Tu-334. According to the information provided by the Antonov design bureau general designer Dmitry Kivoy, until 2024 the Bureau plans to supply 340 aircraft of the An-148/-158/-168 family worldwide.

Reference:
New turbojet An148, created by the Antonov bureau in collaboration with 240 international companies from 14 countries, is a short-haul passenger aircraft, designed to carry 65-85 passengers in the flight range from 2000 to 5000 km with cruising speed of 820-870 km / hr. According to the 2006 figures the experts’ reviews of efficiency were better than other counterparts by 25-30%.