Hello everybody,

prepare for the first ever trip report of Pulkovo Aviation posted at airliners.net... 

yesterday, I returned from a trip to Russia. I was in St. Petersburg for 4 days, flying with TU154M of the "Aviapredpriyatie ´Pulkovo´ (Sankt-Peterburg)", or Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise as they´re known outside Russia.

Wed, February 26, 2003
DUS-LED FV244 1145-1615
Tu-154M, RA-85204, completed September 30, 1991

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Photo © Peter Tonna

Since this plane was obviously built prior to the Soviet Unions break-up, I guess she began her career flying for Aeroflot´s Leningrad directorate, from which Pulkovo Aviation emerged. I´d appreciate if anybody could share some information on her and her sister-ship RA-85771, since it´s rather difficult to find online census for Soviet/Russian aircraft types.

I arrived at DUS at 0900, only to find out that the little shuttle train from station to terminal was not working (as usual). After taking the ersatz-bus to the terminal, I immediately went to the three designated check-in counters to be among the first when they opened.

I´m glad I did, because when they opened two hours before departure, three large queues had developped, stretching about 50 metres back each. I requested a window seat in the front and got 4A, which is the second row in economy. (Business consists of one 2-2 row with quite comfortably looking seats; meals are the same for both C and Y, though.)

Security and passport controls were a breeze, but I noticed huge queues at the additional security check-point through which passengers of British airlines had to go.

When the time had come, two busses took us to our aircraft. By now, I was more than a little excited, because this was to be only my third flight in a Soviet/Russian built plane. After entering the plane though the second door, I settled in my seat, sucking in as many details as possible, for they were so exotic for me, after countless Airbus and Boeing flights. If you´re interested, here are some of them:

- Airsickness bags only on request, but the nice ones, good quality with airline logo on them.

- No safety cards except some wall-mounted ones behind plexiglass; safety instructions were printed in the inflight magazine, for IL-86, TU-154 and TU-134 combined.

- The inflight magazine was Russian only and jointly issued by Pulkovo and The State Transport Company Rossiya.

- Only two toilets.

- Over the forward crew seat, there´s a little plaque stating registration and the date the plane was built.

- Very small seat pitch, but the wide cabin partly compensated that. I don´t know about exact measures, but after flying 737 (2nd and 3rd generation), 320 and TU5 within two weeks, I´d rate the cabin with of the Tupolev as superior to the Boeing´s and only slightly inferior to the Airbus´.

- The seat backs can be folded flat - of course only forward.

- The overhead bins are quite small, but at least they can be locked (i.e. not just hat racks as in the Yak-40 which I experienced a month ago).

- The tray tables in the first row fold out from the wall and are made from wood.

- Announcements in Russian and German are exclusively made by the stewardesses. They put special emphasis on the speed of "over 900 kph".

Right after boarding I asked to have a look at the cockpit to take a pic. The steward replied that it was a bad moment because the crew was busy doing their preflight preparations, but I should ask him again in-flight. Even better, I thought. But them, some supervisor who was deadheading said it was strictly forbidden and I could go right now. Oh well, better than nothing.

The flight itself was very nice. Due to sunny weather without clouds, I was able to clearly make out Muenster, Hamburg with the airport and the Airbus facilities at XFW (including a view of the shrinking Muehlenberger Loch), the island of Fehmarn with its famous bridge, Copenhagen and Malmoe with the bridge and tunnel in between and very snowy landscapes in South-Western Sweden. Shortly afterwards, clouds barred any view until landing.

Another amazing encounter: an Estonian 737 raced past my window. She was presumably one Fligh Level (i.e. 300 metres) below and, fortunately, a bit left of us. Her course must have been exactly head-on to ours, and the combined speeds of 1800 kph or so made her buzz by in the blink of an eye. Truly breath-taking. After all, one doesn´t come to realise one´s actual enormous speed very often in an airliner.

The noise level was OK, still tolerable in the back, and definitely comparable to Western a/c in the front.

Service was excellent, both a cold and a warm meal were served, as well as four rounds of drinks plus coffee/tea with one refill.

We landed at Pulkovo 1, the domestic airport because Pulkovo 2 is closed due to renovation. Nevertheless, immigration and customs went smooth and relatively fast.


St. Petersburg is a marvellous city. There´s something for everybody: world-renowned art collections at the Hermitage museum, beautiful buildings, churches and the like, a vibrant night life, cheap but high quality ballett and opera performances, shopping etc.
I had extreme luck concerning the weather, throughout my stay of net three days it was cold but sunny. I absolutely don´t regret to choose the winter for this trip - I mean, in summer it´s a bit more difficult to take a walk on the Neva river   .


Sun, March 2, 2003
LED-DUS FV243 1015-1045
Tu-154M, RA-85771, completed March 22, 1993


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Photo © Yevgeny Pashnin


OK, so now a Russian plane on the way back, not a Soviet one as one the first flight. Again, if you have some info on the a/c´s curriculum vitae, please share it.

Funnily, we first had to go through security, then customs and only after all that check-in. Got 20F and was happy: it´s between the two overwing exits, no seat in front, no seat behind - just perfect. Another guy claimed to have the window seat in row 20, and quite persistently, but when he showed me his boarding pass, the solution was as follows: he had 20E, and because the Kyrillic alphabet goes A B V G D E... The seat numbers and letters are displayed over the seat in both Latin AND Kyrillic, so he thought E was the window seat - tough luck mate, where do you think F is - on the wing???

Other than that, the flight was the same as the first one, even the meals were the same  - so I won´t bore you any further.


As always, questions, feedback etc. are more than welcome.

Daniel