OREANDA-NEWS. March 9, 2010. Representatives of ANTONOV Company took part in “Experience of operation of AN-140 aircraft in “Yakutia Airlines” scientific and industrial conference. Operation of AN-140 regional turboprop on domestic air routes of Sakha Republic (Yakutia) became the main topic of the discussion. Till present, three AN-140s, the first of which started flights in September 2006, performed more than 3800 flights with total duration of more than 9500 hours.

Representatives of the operator appreciated ability of AN-140 to fly under low temperatures (-55°C) and to base at unpaved runways including pebble ones, which are the most in Yakutia. Regional turboprop aircraft designed by ATR, Bombardier, SAAB can not work under such conditions. AN-140 is often the only mean of communication between the remote regions and the capital of the Republic. It flies to 23 airports within Yakutia and also from Yakutsk to Khabarovsk, Magadan, Blagoveshchensk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. At that advantages of AN-140 over its predecessor AN-24, in particular considerable superiority of a new aircraft on fuel effitiency and level of comfort, are mentioned by the airlines’ representatives.

During the conference representatives of Yakutiya airlines expressed their readiness to enlarge their fleet with 10 AN-140 aircraft till 2015.

D.S.Kiva, President – General Designer of ANTONOV Company says: “We are grateful to Yakutia airlines which supported AN-140 project and became the leading operator of this aircraft in Russia. We highly appreciate the professional skills of the workers of the company in mastering AN-140. Working in close cooperation with them, ANTONOV has the primary task to provide the high level of operational support of this aircraft as well as the other types of AN airplanes”.