OREANDA-NEWS. June 29, 2012. In June 2012 three years passed since the day when the AN-148 regional jet of a new generation had been entered into operation. The AN-148 manufactured at ANTONOV Company carried its first commercial passengers under the flag of AeroSvit Ukrainian airlines from Kharkov to Kiev on June 2, 2009. In December of that year the first commercial flight of the AN-148 of Rossiya airlines (RF) performed its first flight. In 2011 these airplanes were added to fleets of two other airlines - Ukrainian International Airlines (Ukraine) and Polyot (Russia). Eleven AN-148s, which are operated at present, mastered more than 60 domestic routes of Ukraine and Russia as well as international air ways. They perform flights to 65 cities of 37 countries of the world. Month flight time of the AN-148 of Rossiya airlines exceeded 400 hours, average flight time of the fleet reached 320 hours per airplane. In February of the current year one of the Rossiya's airplanes had flown 18 hours a day. Total flight time exceeded 40,000 hours. Almost 900,000 persons became passengers of the AN-148.

ANTONOV Company continues working on widening package of services to provide the new airplanes after-sale support. According to Rossiya's demand, within the period from February to April of 2012, ANTONOV Company developed 6 AN-148s of this operator to improve their operational characteristics. In particular, several systems of the airplane had been re-programmed.

In the process of entering into operation of the AN-148 especial attention was paid to creation of modern system of after-sale support. It was highly appreciated by airlines. So, at present at ANTONOV Company the Informational center of customers support works day and night. It functions as "a single window" to reply the questions within the scheduled terms. The center provides engineering and technical support of the airplanes of the AN-148 family. ANTONOV establishes a full-functional service center to provide all-round support of operators of new ANs.

A center of flight crews training functions at the enterprise. More than 200 pilots of the AN-148 have been trained there. In the process of training complex simulator of D level, developed and built by ANTONOV specialists, is used. It became the first in post-Soviet area simulator of such sophistication. Using this simulator, a pilot can fully imitate flight situations including all the failures. This simulator provides higher level of the flight crew training and, accordingly, the flight safety level.

At present, the AN-148 is in demand in the market. Till present contracts on delivery of 45 airplanes have been signed. Preparation of contracts on other 87 such aircraft is in process.

Serial production of the AN-148 is conducted at ANTONOV Serial Plant and Voronezh Aircraft Building JSC. Today the main task of partners on the programme is to reach a high tempo of the airplane production.