Air Koryo Prepares Russian TU-204-300 Airliner for Service
by Richardson ~ February 23rd, 2008. Filed under: Air Koryo, Economics, Russia.Late in 2007 Russia delivered “its most advanced long-range jet,” to North Korea’s Air Koryo (h/t GS). A variant of the Tupolev TU-204 twin-engined medium range Russian airliner was purchased, the TU-204-300:
It is a shortened, longer range and more efficient derivative of the Tu-204. It is about 6 meters (20 ft) shorter than the basic Tu-204.
Earlier this week the first photos of Air Koryo’s TU-204-300 became available (follow link for full-size pics):
More on Air Koryo, and photos of their other aircraft.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:06 am
Hm, very interesting Richardson. What prompted the delivery when the North owes so much to the Russians?
February 25th, 2008 at 7:23 am
This is pretty much an open question which fueled different speculations within russian aviation enthusiasts. In the past, NK used to receive MiG fighters pretty much for free (although they complained on several occasions for not having the up to date models that could compete with US toys).
Tu-204, like most russian aircrafts these days, has not sold very well especially since Aeroflot turned to western-built airliners (although Iran Air has recently signed a deal for ~20 to 30 Tu204 deliveries). Air Koryo also got another of these birds on order. Well, they could still fly their antics Il62 and Tu-154b2 in the coming years since their old plane have accumulated very little flying hours (mostly a few hours a week). Anyway, Tu204 will significantly reduce their fuel consumption and might facilitate the opening of new routes in the future, who knows (this thing can fly directly to tehran).
The above pictures were not taken in DPRK but in Russia were the plane was being prepare prior to its acceptance flight. Anyway, they should have started flight crew training a long time ago (did they?) for the airliner to be operational now as technology is much closer to an up to date A320 or B737-800 than any of the antics they still dare to fly with (glass cockpit, fly by wire, etc…).
May 10th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Looks good! Is there any chance of seeing this aircraft in Canada? I think it would be nice to get away from American products that force us into illegal conflicts around the world.
May 11th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Yeah, purchasing Russian aircraft would solve all of Canada’s problems.
May 18th, 2008 at 10:20 am
R.H. you can feel free to live like the rest of the world. As for me I like the free one.
May 18th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
R.H., If you’d have had the Russians/Soviets as your southern neighbor, perhaps your ENTIRE flag would’ve been red. Only Canadians have the ability to be more self-rightious than we Americans.
May 19th, 2008 at 6:20 am
I believe the Russian made airliners are increasingly victims of American propaganda.
The Russian aircrafts cost just a third of American made planes,are more sturdy and have a better mileage.Despite all these benefits,they still are not selling well.I think the world ahs to stop believing the american media and start loooking at facts in the face.The American planes have the most numbers of crashes blamed on technical errors when compared to the Russian made aircrafts.
Anyway,the Americans can never be self-righteous.They can be and are only might-righteous.
May 19th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Airbus? What’s that?
Some people fall for their own propaganda.
May 20th, 2008 at 7:21 am
By the way, Koryo’s TU204-300 has started service and was pictured in Beijing in the beginning of May. This delivery was part of a 2 planes order (don’t know when will the second Tu204-3 arrive and wether it will be for passenger operations or government use). Air Koryo is still blacklisted in Europe though, after allegedly failing to address the safety issues raised by France’s civil aviation organ (which by coincidence is one of the few European countries that did not tie diplomatic relations with the DPRK). My sole trip to DRPK was train in & out but I am now considering going back on a (ridiculously expensive) few days trip from Beijing. Last year, I had booked with Dandong local CITS (tourism office) which was fairly cheap, although still twice as much as price asked for Chinese nationals on the same trip (I was the only European of the bunch. Quiet funny to see how China’s “new bourgeoisie” feels superior to DPRK and does not follow any of the indications/rules that were part of the trip. Our korean guides seemed to have a really hard time “controlling” them, their resentment towards the ethics of chinese “nouveaux riches” was also very explicit).