OREANDA-NEWS. On the 22nd of March 2014 Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft, owned by Center-South Airlines, performed a charter flight and took National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) delegation to the “Baikonur” spaceport.

The flight from Moscow airport Sheremetyevo to the aerodrome “Krainiy”, which is a supportive facility of “Baikonur” spaceport (Kazakhstan), took 2 hours 45 minutes.

NASA delegation arrived to “Baikonur” spaceport in order to ensure flight of American astronaut Steven Swanson to International Space Station (ISS) under the 39th long-term expedition program, which shall start on 26th March 2014. Cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev (both Russians) will depart to ISS together with astronaut Swanson on the spaceship “Soyuz TMA-12M”.

Earlier, on March 21, 2014 the first Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft was delivered to the new Russian customer Centre-South Airlines.

SCAC delivered the aircraft, MSN 95012, to Centre-South Airlines under a Lease Agreement. The airline has ordered three SSJ100. The aircraft will be operated for the benefit of AtlasJet company which is focused on arranging charter flights.

The first Centre-South Airlines SSJ100 is named after Oleg Kuprikov who played a significant role in development of the Russian charter service market.

The aircraft was delivered in a two-class layout design: 12 seats in business class and 75 in economy.

Centre South Airlines decided to unveil its new corporate livery by using the newly delivered SSJ100 aircraft, which perfectly displays the corporate style emphasizing the airline's main areas of activity.

Centre-South Airlines has been operating in the business aviation market for more than 20 years. The SSJ100 aircraft will perform private and corporate charter flights to different destinations across Russia and Europe.

Taking into account the increasing demand for corporate and VIP transportation, the fleet expansion with SSJ100 aircraft will allow Centre-South Airlines to respond to customer demands as quickly as possible, by a reduced aircraft turn-around-time. The wide interiors and the superior comfort of the SSJ100 along with the high-quality services offered by the airline

Centre-South Airlines is taking advantage of a reduced delivery time, being the aircraft re-market SSJ100s, which have previously been in operation. With this approach, the airline has the opportunity to focus on its main mission, reacting to the market changing trends and increasing its profitability by putting the aircraft in revenue service in timely manner.