Brilliant Pieter….one place i have never been is Russia..must try get there before all the Russian tin disappears for good..bring on the other threads!

Better not wait much more then a year. Having been there two years ago as well, I must admit this trip was kind a disappointing.

Most of the interesting Russian planes have gone now. The Tu-134 is no longer in use except for some excutive jets. The IL-86 has gone away completely, the older model Tu-154 have gone entirely and of the M model only a handful were seen in operation. This year I did see quite a few more IL-62s then two years ago which really surprised me. None of them in the air though.

The Russians are renewing their fleet at a fast pace. Not just with dull 737s and A320s though (although regretably the majority are). At Pulkovo I’ve seen four Rossiya An-148s and at Sheremetyevo all but three Aeroflot SSJ’s where seen. Surprisingly only one SSJ was seen in action. The rest where lined up at long term parking. I wonder if Aeroflot is really happy with them considering over half their fleet were parked during our two hour visit at Sheremetyevo?