Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC) has seen the prospect of its Superjet SSJ100 operating in Europe dim following Adria Airways’ decision to abandon plans to expand its fleet with 15 of the Russian regional jets. The Slovenian carrier in November last year signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with SCAC to add 15 SSJ100s via a long-term lease arrangement and an MOU to establish a joint MRO operation at Ljubljana Airport. It expected deliveries to start at the beginning of this year, but the Star Alliance airline on Tuesday communicated that its shareholders and management had agreed not to continue with the SCAC partnership and Superjet acquisitions. While stressing that the aircraft type “per se still seems very attractive,” Adria Airways pointed to “growing concerns about SCAC's commitment to a fair and stable long-term partnership as well as lacking a common vision of further strategic development of the company” for its inability to finalize the contractual clauses with the Russian company.  

AIN could not immediately reach the airline for comment on the nature of its concerns of the Russian OEM’s commitment.

SCAC noted in an emailed statement to AIN that the preliminary agreement involving the delivery of 15 aircraft to Adria Airways in 2019 was supposed to become a firm order. “The institutions that were to provide the financing, after consideration the Adria Airways financial report for 2018, recommended [to] SCAC to cancel the deal in order to factor out the losses,” the company said. “The recommendations were accepted, and the work was stopped. The delivery of the aircraft is impossible without the firm order.”

This is not the first time SCAC and an SSJ100 customer differed on the reasons for the end of a contractual engagement. In February, SCAC and CityJet cited diverging explanations for why the Irish regional airline decided to end SS100 operations.

That feud appears ongoing. In a March 27 statements on its website, SCAC said that six SSJ100s remain part of the CityJet fleet. “Any decisions about the return of the aircraft to the owner as far as the legal, technical, or financial or other aspects are concerned are possible only after multilateral negotiations and consultations,” it asserted. CityJet’s website makes no mention of SSJ100s and says its fleet includes 25 Bombardier CRJ900s and 13 BAE Systems RJ85s.  

Though it forcefully rejected “many false and misleading reports in recent months about the business condition” of the company, Adria Airways at the end of last year embarked on a recapitalization program. Its German owner—4K Invest—injected a first tranche of €4 million into the airline in December and had planned to provide a further €10 million in the first quarter of 2019, but the latter recap won’t take place. “Given that Adria doesn’t need to finance the transition to a new aircraft type anymore and based on its positive business plan, no additional capital increase is planned,” it said. “The structure of Adria fleet will remain unchanged and Adria will continue to focus on operational reliability and stability with the proven fleet of existing aircraft types.”

Adria currently deploys three Airbus A319s, nine Bombardier CRJ900s, two Bombardier CRJ700s, and six Saab 2000s on a mix of scheduled, charter, cargo, and ACMI flights.