Greetings to aviation lovers and those who sympathize with us!
You probably already miss reviews of domestic aircraft (well, except for “Superjets”, of course). And today I suggest you take a flight on the Tu-214. The last review of the Tu-204/214 was in 2020, but it described the 2017 flight, and the plane was a Tu-204 (by the way, the author of that review was also on this flight, but I don’t know whether there will be another review of this flight). Namely, the Tu-214 appeared in reviews back in 2014! Now passenger transportation on Tu-204/214 in Russia is performed only by Red Wings. Since March 2024, they have been flying abroad, from Moscow to Yerevan, Batumi and Tel Aviv. Also, from May 25, during the summer season, you can fly on a Tu-204/214 from Novosibirsk to Batumi. On domestic routes, this type of aircraft could fly from February 28 to May 30 on Saturday mornings to Saransk and back on Sunday nights. In Saransk, the liner was loaded with tourists and flew to Sharm el-Sheikh. Thus, the flight from Moscow to Saransk was a ferry flight, not a regular one. But in order not to fly the plane empty, the airline sold tickets for these flights. This is exactly what I took advantage of, and at the same time I decided to take you on the flight with me! Well, let's move on to the review itself and start, of course, with purchasing tickets.
I have been watching this flight since March, but I still couldn’t choose the time. And there were periodic changes to the flight itself. At first, the airport of departure and arrival was Domodedovo, then the departure was from Domodedovo, and the arrival was in Zhukovsky. At one point, tickets disappeared from sale altogether, I even thought that this trip would not work out for me. I even managed, so to speak, to use the freed up money to book another trip, which will be described in the next review. But a couple of days later they appeared again, and this time the airport of departure and arrival was Zhukovsky. After waiting a little more, I decided that it was time to buy tickets.
The cost of purchasing a round-trip fare without luggage was 4,460 rubles, with luggage - 1,000 more. The price, as you can see, probably couldn’t be better! And this is if we also take into account that only Rossiya flies on this route and the price there is 5500 one way, and on some days it goes up to 7500.
But we are not looking for easy ways, and although it was clear that the plane would be half empty, I still decided to play it safe and pay for seats for both flights. Seats in the first row cost 1,500 rubles, then from rows 2 to 6 the price was 999 rubles. Rows 9 to 29 - 499 each at the window and aisle, in the center - 399 rubles. The last 5 rows were priced at 299 rubles, which is where we will go.
Next they suggest increasing your hand luggage and taking a suitcase with you. We don't need this, and we scroll further.
The next item is food. You can purchase it on a flight from Moscow, but this service is not available from Saransk. The price of the pleasure of having a snack in the Tu-214 cabin at an altitude of about 10,000 meters started from 150 rubles just for tea (black or green), up to 2000 for “Meals developed taking into account religious beliefs,” as it is written on the Aeroflot website. Namely: kosher and Muslim (halal), which for some reason is called “Europe”.
The flight was early, in Zhukovsky I don’t know what the prices are and what you can buy for breakfast. Therefore, just in case, I chose a “beef roll” for 500 rubles and tea for 150.
But stop talking about what is not necessary.
My flight is scheduled to depart at 6:20, which means I need to arrive at the airport at about 4:30. Moreover, the airport is new and unknown to me. The terminal from the hotel is approximately 1300 meters away, without luggage you can easily walk on foot, without rushing anywhere, in 10–15 minutes. But the rain falling outside dissuaded me from walking, and a taxi was called. The car was found quickly and for 187 rubles it took me four minutes to the airport.
It so happened that on May 30, 2026, Zhukovsky Airport celebrated its tenth anniversary. But this was not reflected in any way in any reminders or congratulations to ourselves: neither in front of the terminal, nor inside it. In general, repair work was going on in front of the terminal, so you won’t see any beautiful photographs.
Zhukovsky was surprised already at the entrance to the terminal when he was asked to remove his belt. I've only seen this before during pre-flight security, but then immediately - take off your belt. Later, the same thing happened at Domodedovo, but I have never seen anything like this at other airports.
The airport does not serve many flights per day: for example, on the day of my departure there were 15 departure flights per day. And the seasonal schedule included 21 destinations, mainly CIS countries, mixed with Turkey and Israel. Also in Russia: to Beloyarsky (RusLine), Kaliningrad (Ural Airlines), Nyagan and Saransk (Red Wings). But now flights to Saransk are no longer operating.
At the entrance there is only one frame and tape, so queues are created periodically.
Since this is my first time at this airport, of course, everything is interesting. On the ground floor there are reception desks; I immediately found the one I needed and, having received my boarding pass, went on. On the other side is the exit from the baggage claim area for arriving passengers and the Shokoladnitsa cafe.
An escalator leads to the second floor, where pre-flight security is located; you need to go down the usual stairs or use the elevator in both directions.
Upon going up to the second floor, passengers are separated: one (most) part goes to international flights, the other goes straight to domestic ones.
To passport control and Pre-flight inspection of domestic Russian flights is preceded by a long corridor with many seats. Along the way there are also various vending machines, a small store, a pharmacy and a cafe.
If your phone is dead, you can recharge it at special stations, which are located approximately two aisles from each other.
In the meantime, yours the gadget is gaining energy for a long or not so long flight, you can admire the beauty of the Russian North at the exhibition, which is located on the walls of the terminal.
After passing through pre-flight control, we find ourselves in a clean area. The first thing that immediately attracts attention is the diagram of the Tu-144 and its flight characteristics.
The zone itself is small, but it clearly copes with so many domestic flights.
Here, again, there are vending machines with water costing 160 rubles per 0.5 liter. And a small cafe, which opened, as I understand it, only at the end of last year. As I expected when purchasing the ticket, there wasn’t much to buy there to eat. The menu only had a burrito sandwich and a chicken sandwich, but only chicken was available for 590 rubles, and the question is how long they have been there. Therefore, I limited myself to only tea for 150 rubles.
On the left is a lonely A321 Red Wings (VP-BVW), which may soon go to the park Siberia Airlines.
Our plane is preparing to receive passengers.
Nearby stands a Tu-214 RA-64549 that just arrived from Tel Avia.
Far from the terminal there are still Soviet aircraft, which still delight us with their flights.
While I was looking at the apron with the planes, boarding for our flight began. There are no telescopic bridges at the airport, so we were taken to the plane by bus.
Well hello, Tupol! Haven't seen each other so closely for a long time!
We look back at the airport terminal and go to the cabin of our plane.
At the entrance we greet the flight attendants and go to the second cabin to our seat. The aircraft has a single-class layout and can accommodate 194 passengers.
The kitchen is located at the end of the cabin.
Well, now let's take our seat. I haven’t flown on a Tu-214 for nine years, or rather, I haven’t flown on a Tu-214 at all, there were only Tu-204s.
The legroom is decent, there shouldn’t be any harassment during the flight.
Anti-makasars are in place, at some point they began to disappear from the cabins, and for some time some airlines stopped using them. But lately I don’t remember a single flight without them.
By the way, I forgot to say that today we are flying on a Tu-214 with tail number RA-64518, which was released in 2009 and entered the Transaero fleet. In 2016, it was transferred to the Red Wings, and in September 2017, it was put into storage, where it remained until September 2023. Since February 2024, after the restoration of airworthiness, this board again pleases us with its flights.
Over our heads we have a standard set of three lights and fans, the panel itself reminds us that the board is not new. It will be interesting to see how this panel will look on the new Tu-214 when they finally appear in our airlines.
The luggage racks are not very large.
Okay, we will still have time ahead to inspect the cabin. While we are standing, we need to look out the window, and there is something to pay attention to!
The fourth experimental aircraft MS-21-300, b/n 73056, produced in 2019. True, for some reason MS-21-310 is written on it. They differ in engines: the 21-310 already has Russian PD-14s installed, and the 21-300 also has American Pratt & Whitney PW1400G. But 73056 was released back in 2019, and it was powered by American engines. In general, it’s unclear.
A little further away are the restored cargo Il-96-400T RA-96103 of Sky Gates Airlines and Tu-204 Red Wings RA-64043 (I apologize for such a low-quality photo).
While you and I were looking at the planes standing on the apron, the landing was completed, the ramp was driven away from our plane and they began to push us into the area starting the engines.
Now, following the old tradition, I invite you to buckle up and enjoy the takeoff of the Tu-214 from the longest runway (5405 meters) in Europe and the third longest runway in the world.
While we are leaving the train, we can take a better look around. As I expected, I was flying alone in my block of seats. But still, I did not count on such occupancy: I thought that there would be much fewer passengers on this flight.
During the flight, a song was periodically sung in my head: “...Make it a rule to always fly Transaero...”. This is probably because I know where this plane flew, and the interior colors were reminiscent of Trans-Air, only in the TSO the seats seemed to be fabric, and the “wings” were made of leatherette.
And such panels and luggage racks reminded me of the good old Tu-154; Those who flew probably remember: the cabins of Soviet planes were not like a gray wall, like in modern ones, but made of multi-colored plastic, as if they had wallpaper, which, of course, gave some kind of home comfort during the flight.
Let's take a break from the cabin and look inside porthole.
The appearance of dense clouds forces us to return to the overview of the interior. What haven't we watched yet? Right! Contents of the pocket! Here we have only one safety instruction.
And just a few photos of the interior for the full picture.
Meanwhile, they brought me the food I paid for when purchasing the ticket. Let me remind you: we have a “roll with beef” for 500 rubles and tea for 150.
When they brought the package with the roll (although this, of course, is more shawarma/shawarma - choose the one you need according to your place of residence), then, looking at the size, I thought: WOW YEAH... When the box was opened, I thought: well yes. About 1/3 of the package was occupied by air.
The taste was nothing remarkable; it is worth noting that the beef was soft and not tough, as can sometimes be found. I tried to cut it off evenly with a piece of packaging - how it turned out is up to you to judge.
While I was assessing the taste of the roll, our plane began to descend. The weather was good in Saransk, and upon approach you could see both the city and our arrival airport.
During landing there was a little chatter, this will be visible in the video, so again, let's fasten our seat belts and land in Saransk.
At the Saransk airport there is no taxiing parallel to the runway, and in order to get to the terminal, planes landing on runway 20 must reach the end of the runway, turn around there and go back along the runway. Also, to take off on runway 02 you have to drive to the end, turn around and take off.
Here we are in the parking lot, the engines are turned off, we are waiting for a mobile ramp. To our left is a one-story building of the international terminal.
After 7-10 minutes of waiting, passengers begin to be let out of the cabin. Finally, I take a few photos of the interior and head out.
There are no boarding bridges in Saransk either, so we go down the regular ramp and take a bus to the terminal.
At the airport itself we immediately get into the zone baggage claim, it is small and has only one belt. In principle, airport traffic is not very large, to put it mildly. The airport serves flights within Russia to Moscow (Russia), St. Petersburg (Azimut, Red Wings), Kazan (UVT Aero), Mineralnye Vody (Azimut) and Sochi (Red Wings). At the moment you can only fly abroad to Antalya (Red Wings). As I saw from the airport board, it serves a maximum of five flights per day.
Since I have no luggage, I head out.
The terminal is not small, of course, and for such a number of flights it is more than enough. Its operation began on February 14, 2018, it was built to receive flights during the FIFA World Cup matches in the summer of 2018 and is designed for a capacity of up to 300 people per hour (during World Cup matches - 600 people per hour). A total of 4 games were played in Saransk: Peru - Denmark, Colombia - Japan, Iran - Portugal and Panama - Tunisia.
On the ground floor there is a waiting area for those meeting and those who hurried to arrive before check-in for their flight. Reception desks, ticket offices, small cafe and photo exhibition. An escalator leads to the passport control and pre-flight inspection area, which is visible in one of the photos.
Get from From the airport to the city you can take bus number 29 (railway station - airport). If you believe the schedule that is on the airport’s website, then there are 6 flights per day on this route to the airport and 7 flights from the airport (fare is 35 rubles).
Or by minibuses and buses to the “Airport” stop. It’s just not indicated that this stop is located on the highway and you will have to walk almost three kilometers to the terminal.
There is another option to get there, of course, by taxi. In the evening, when I was returning to the airport for the return flight, I paid 429 rubles from the railway station.
Now let's finish this flight and talk a little about the return journey. More precisely, even about transport at Zhukovsky airport. Our flight from Saransk went without delays, and at about 1:45 I already entered the airport building. About five minutes later I started calling a taxi: as you remember, my hotel is less than one and a half kilometers away, and you can walk, BUT! Even in the evening I noticed the number of mongrels and their size on the way to the hotel. Meeting these comrades was not part of my plans, so I decided to take a taxi.
Prices for a maximum five-minute trip started at 350 rubles, and one well-known application, which begins with “M” and ends with “IM,” stated a total of 750 rubles! At the same time, no one accepted my application, although there were cars from various companies parked in the square in front of the airport. In the end, there was one driver who ended the trip somewhere in Ramenskoye and came to pick me up from there. The cost of the trip was 285 rubles, and the waiting time from the start of the call to the landing was about an hour!
The next day I packed my things and now went on foot to the airport, since I had to move to a hotel near Sheremetyevo, because the next day I had a flight to St. Petersburg. I almost miscalculated and met the departing bus No. 441, which goes to the Kotelniki metro station, at the turn near the airport, being about two minutes late. “Nothing,” I thought, “the next bus will be there in half an hour.” But it turned out that these buses travel as they please. If they want, they will arrive on schedule; if they want, they won’t. The wait for the next flight lasted almost an hour!
And the excellent flight was spoiled by the transport accessibility of Zhukovsky airport. But, of course, the memories of it, the day spent in Saransk and the fact that I had several more flights ahead (one of which will also be reviewed soon), lifted my spirits during the journey to Sheremetyevo!
That’s all for today. Thank you all for your attention and see you again!
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