Sukhoi Superjet 100

Updated: October 2026 – A short twinjet with engines under the wings, a conventional tail and a Russian registration: anyone who sees one in central Europe today has had real luck. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 was Russia’s big attempt to take on Embraer and Bombardier with a modern regional jet. For a few years it even flew for Western European airlines. This page shows you how to recognize it, how it differs from the E-Jet and A220 and why it is now one of the rare birds for spotters in the DACH region.

What is the Sukhoi Superjet 100?

The Superjet 100, or SSJ100 for short, is a twin-engine regional jet with a single aisle. Depending on the seating, it holds 87 passengers in two classes or up to 108 in one class. The factory designation is RRJ-95, where the 95 stands for the typical seat count of the base version. The ICAO type designator SU95, under which you find the type in tracking apps, is derived from it.

The aircraft was developed by Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, a subsidiary of the group that is otherwise best known for Su-series combat aircraft. It is built at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur plant in Russia’s Far East, with components coming from Novosibirsk, among other places. Unusual for a Russian airliner was the strong Western involvement: the SaM146 engine comes from PowerJet, a joint venture of Safran and NPO Saturn. The landing gear, avionics and auxiliary power unit also came largely from Western suppliers.

The first flight took place on May 19, 2008, in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The launch customer was Armenia’s Armavia, which took delivery of its first aircraft in April 2011 and flew the first scheduled flight on April 21, 2011. In February 2012 the European aviation authority EASA issued the type certificate for the RRJ-95B version – which opened the way to the West.

The three features that are enough to identify it

In the field, the Superjet mainly raises one question: is this really an SSJ or an E-Jet or an A220? Three observations help narrow it down.

How country prefixes are built and which country is behind which code is explained in the article on aircraft registration prefixes. If you want to practice placing types faster in general, Identifying aircraft types for beginners helps.

Variants: 95B, 95LR and SJ-100

In scheduled service you will practically only meet two versions, which hardly differ on the outside. Then there is the modernized version with Russian systems.

Feature	SSJ100-95B	SSJ100-95LR	SJ-100
Classification	Base version	Long-range version	Version with largely Russian components
Range (manufacturer/data sheet)	around 3,050 km	up to around 4,580 km	around 4,320 km
Max. takeoff weight	45.88 t	49.45 t	49.45 t
Engine	SaM146	SaM146	PD-8 (test aircraft also with SaM146)
Seats	87–108	87–108	around 103

The most striking external change of later years is the Saberlets: wingtip extensions that extend up and down. They first flew in December 2017, are optional and can be retrofitted. The fuel saving is given as three to four percent, depending on the source. On the SJ-100 they are standard and increase the wingspan. So if you see plain wingtips, you very likely have an older aircraft without the retrofit in front of you.

There was also a business jet version, which the Swiss VIP operator Comlux, among others, had ordered. From the outside it looks like the airliner; only the registration and the operator give it away.

From Sukhoi to Yakovlev: the naming history

Anyone searching for the Superjet today stumbles over several names. At the end of 2018 the Russian state group United Aircraft Corporation transferred the program from Sukhoi to Irkut, and in 2020 the former Sukhoi Civil Aircraft was renamed “Regional Aircraft.” In August 2023 Irkut finally received the historic name Yakovlev. Since then the aircraft has been marketed as the SJ-100.

The background to the modernization is the sanctions after Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Western suppliers stopped providing parts and support, so Russia is working on a version in which the engine, landing gear, avionics and many other systems come from domestic production. The new PD-8 engine from NPO Saturn first flew on the Superjet on March 17, 2025, and received its type certificate in June 2026. Certification of the complete SJ-100 has been postponed several times; according to Russian reports the authorities are now aiming for late 2026 to early 2027, with first deliveries named for the second half of 2027. As of October 2026 that is therefore a moving target.

Superjet, E190 or A220?

You most often confuse the Superjet with other regional jets that also have engines under the wings. The table shows the most important differences.

Feature	Superjet 100	Embraer E190	Airbus A220-100
ICAO type designator	SU95	E190	BCS1
Length	29.94 m	36.25 m	35.0 m
Wingspan	27.80 m (without Saberlets)	around 28.7 m	35.1 m
Seats per row	5 (2+3)	4 (2+2)	5 (2+3)
Engine	SaM146	CF34-10E	PW1500G

The Embraer E190 has a narrower fuselage with four seats per row and is much longer. The smaller E175 comes closer to the Superjet in length but remains slimmer. The Airbus A220-100 also has five seats per row, but strikingly large geared turbofan engines and long, slender wings with a span of over 35 meters. You recognize the newer E190-E2 by its large engines and long wings without conventional winglets.

If the engines are at the tail, it is not a Superjet but more likely a CRJ900 or a Fokker 100. With four engines under a high wing you are looking at an Avro RJ85. And a Chinese newcomer like the COMAC C919 is already a full-fledged medium-haul jet at almost 39 meters.

The Superjet in Western Europe: CityJet and Brussels Airlines

For spotters in central Europe, the most exciting phase of the Superjet was short. Ireland’s CityJet took delivery of its first aircraft in early summer 2016 and thus became the only Western European operator. From 2017 CityJet provided the aircraft with crew on a wet lease for Brussels Airlines, which used them to serve European routes from Brussels Airport. How such leases with crew work is explained in the article Wet lease explained.

The experience was mixed: Brussels Airlines looked for alternatives because of reliability problems and did not extend beyond 2018. In early 2019 CityJet ended the operation, and the aircraft were parked. In North America, Mexico’s Interjet used a good twenty Superjets from 2013; here too the aircraft were later grounded before the airline ceased operations.

Where you can find the Superjet today

Since the end of February 2022, EU airspace has been closed to Russian airlines, and on March 14, 2022, EASA revoked the European type certificate of the Superjet. At German, Austrian or Swiss airports you therefore cannot expect to see an SSJ in scheduled service. The type shows up there at most in exceptional cases, such as special or ferry flights by operators outside Russia – and even that is rare.

The active fleet flies almost entirely in Russia. The largest operator is Aeroflot, joined by airlines such as Yamal, Red Wings, Azimuth and Gazpromavia. How many aircraft are actually flying at the moment fluctuates: because of missing Western spare parts, part of the fleet has repeatedly been grounded since 2022.

Region	Chance of a hit	Why
Germany, Austria, Switzerland	very low	No EU certification, Russian airlines banned from EU airspace
Rest of the EU	very low	Same restrictions
Destinations of Russian airlines outside the EU	low to medium	Depends on the current schedule and aircraft assignment
Russia	high	Home market with Aeroflot as the largest operator

The fastest way to see whether an SU95 is flying somewhere is tracking services. How that works and what data ADS-B provides is covered in the guide to flight tracking with ADS-B. Which app suits the purpose is compared in the flight tracker app comparison.

Accidents and safety record

The history of the Superjet also includes serious accidents. On May 9, 2012, an aircraft on a demonstration flight in Indonesia hit Mount Salak, and all 45 people on board died. On May 5, 2019, Aeroflot Flight 1492 returned to Moscow Sheremetyevo after lightning strikes and a radio failure; in the hard landing and the subsequent fire, 41 of the 78 people on board died. In July 2024 a Gazpromavia Superjet also crashed near Kolomna on a flight without passengers, and the three crew members died.

For spotters these events matter mainly as background: they explain why the type had a hard time in Western aviation, even before sanctions pushed it out of Europe.

Photo tips specifically for the Superjet

Because you so rarely get the Superjet in front of your lens, it pays to make the most of the chance.

You can calculate in advance when the sun is favorable at your vantage point; how that works is covered in Planning the sun position for your photo spot. The article Spotting rare aircraft collects more rarities and how to track them down. And if you are just starting out, Plane spotting for beginners gets you on course quickly.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

Conclusion

The Superjet 100 is an aircraft with an eventful history: technically modern, built with strong Western involvement, briefly in service in Western Europe and gone from the EU since 2022. You can recognize it by its short fuselage, underwing engines and conventional tail, and confirm it by the type designator SU95 and the registration. Precisely because it is so rare here, it is one of the types that stand out in a collection.