Red Wings unveils red "Ferrari" Superjet

Picture: Artyom Kashirin

We like beautiful airline liveries, here on this site, so could not pass the opportunity to bid farewell to 2020 by sharing one of the most eye-catching paint jobs I have seen in a while. Even more so when red is a colour typically associated with the Christmas and New Year festivities!

Red Wings Airlines will be flying this beautifully painted Superjet SSJ100 (registration RA-89140), which, I am told, has been nicknamed “The Ferrari Superjet”.

Russian aviation blogger Artyom Kashirin - whose channels on Instagram, Youtube and Tik Tok are a must for everyone interested in Russian commercial aviation! - was at the all-red Superjet unveiling earlier this week and he kindly sent me the close up photograph that illustrates this post, which I could not stop myself from sharing here

This is the 4th Superjet delivered to Red Wings, out of 60 currently on order. Despite currently operating a number of Western-made aircraft, Red Wings Airlines, which has ties to the Russian aerospace industry, has traditionally fulfilled a role as a platform to showcase Russian-made aircraft.

What started as an international project, with Italian participation and a number of key foreign suppliers, has become a mostly Russian programme. In fact, difficulties keep mounting for the Superjet on the international front: this December the US Dept. of Commerce placed Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, Superjet’s manufacturer, among the firms subject to technology export restrictions, while the firm’s flagship overseas customer, Mexican airline Interjet, has suspended all flights and is on the brink of bankruptcy.

On the other hand, there may be a growing need for this category of aircraft domestically, as Russian airlines aim to develop the domestic regional market (this aircraft. For example, will service Red Wings new regional hub at Ekaterinburg’s Koltsovo airport, where it will compete with local incumbent Ural Airlines. The type may also play a key role in the new airline that is being planned for the Russian Far East region and in the revamped operational structure, with a focus on domestic regional connections, of Aeroflot’s subsidiary Rossiya.

Happy New Year!