There are some pretty simple reasons why the Russian aircrafts are not making or never made big in the aviation market.
Although Russians were in the beginning of the aviation boom ahead of the western companies in some aspects, they were never able to sustain there lead. This was the time in the Soviet era where internal disturbance wasent allowing enough funding into the aviation sector. This problem still persists in Russia…the lack of funding in civil aviation sector. Even though they do respectable funding in the military area (for obvious reasons).
If Russia would have marketed the new and mdoern TU 204 into the third world countries wisely i see no reason why the TU 204 shouldnt had tasted more success. The aircraft has an option of western engines and avionics so that customers can forget there thoughts of noisy, unreliable and fuel-guzzling Russian engines and faulty Russian avionics. Same with the AN 140……. a good modern prop. but not got the right marketing just like the TU 204. These new modern Russian examples have great potentials to sell in Africa, India, Eastern Europe where new small airlines keep coming up. And if these examples proove there capability i dont see why aircrafts like these cannot attract customers from Europe, S.America and even USA.
Russia even now doesent do anywhere near what it should for its aviation sector due to lack of funds. Russia has actualy postponed its alliance to make a regional aircraft in colaboration with HAL (India) due to lack of funds in the current scenario.
Due to this poor facilitation by Russia in its aviation sector, even Aeroflot now has taken its eyes of its own examples, otherwise i could see the TU 204 as a major investor for Aeroflot. The state-owned airlines own desertion of Russian MODERN examples showes what condition the civil aviation industry is going through in Russia. Othewise a country which made and flew the worlds first SST (TU 144), its hard to digest what its going through today.
I disagree with Tenthje about the customer service part. Atleasy ilyushin is pretty spot on by Russian standards when spares come into play. Indian Air Force operates a big fleet of IL 76s and its spares when they used to come in from Russian, were to the IAF’s satisfaction. Now those countries which still operate TU 154, IL 76, IL 86 etc. are able to make there own spares (eg. India, Cuba etc.) which obviously is much much cheeper. This why you still see these examples flying.
Trust, is what Russia has suffered. People are still hesitant to travel on Russian examples seeing there not very pretty safety record. I even bet 80% of you guys here will think twice before boarding a Russian jet or would rather take a western counterpart. Yes there accident rate was high, but that was all due to poor maintanence by the Russians. We have to remember if we maintain aircrafts properly you cant fly a particular aircraft for 50 years and it wont cough out, maintanence is the key to an aircrafts life. Expensive, yes, but when you operate an airline you cannot take expenses more over human lives. Thats why still you see small Russian aircrafts crashing here and there of small airlines, when was the last you saw an Aeroflot airliner crash? Because Aeroflot say what, does indeed maintain some standards. Its a state airline not a joke.
I would say Russia is capable of building the finest flying machines possible if only the government and the economy helps out the Russian civil aviation industry.
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