The Tu-214 medium to long-range airliner is a development of the Tupolev Tu-204 with higher weight and longer range. The aircraft was designed by Tupolev JSC of Moscow, Russia and is manufactured at the Kazan Aircraft Production Organisation (KAPO) in Tatarstan. The Tupolev Tu-214 was certified in December 2000 against the Russian AP-25 standards. The aircraft entered service in May 2001 with the Dalavia Airline of Khabarovsk, on scheduled Russian domestic and international routes. The aircraft entered service with the Russia State Transport organisation. In addition, orders for the aircraft were placed by Transaero (ten ordered, first delivered April 2007), Uralskie Airlines, Atlant-Sojuz and Slovak Airlines (two aircraft). The aircraft is available as a single-class or two-class passenger airliner, a combination cargo / passenger aircraft and a VIP / VVIP aircraft. The baseline single-class configuration of the Tu-214 provides 210 passenger seats in a single aisle 3×3 seat arrangement. A two-class arrangement provides 164 seats with 16 business-class seats and 148 economy seats. The Tu-214C3, the 214 combi passenger-cargo convertible, is for mixed cargo and passenger operation. Cargo-passenger TU-214 C3 The Cargo-Passenger Tu-214 aircraft can transport up to 164 passengers or 25.2t of cargo in 26 LD3-46 standard containers. The aircraft can be converted by airport ground crew from the passenger version to a mixed cargo / passenger version or to the all-cargo version in, typically, four or five hours. 18 containers can be loaded in the main passenger cabin and eight containers loaded in the cargo compartment. The aircraft is fitted with a 3,405mm x 2,180mm cargo door and the internal cargo lift for automated loading and unloading of standard containers is installed beneath the cargo hatch. The cargo containers are delivered by an airport loading system to the rear cargo compartment. The aircraft is equipped with a fully automatic container loading system with manual back-up. The first eight containers are automatically lifted to the passenger compartment and automatically secured in the designated positions. A further five containers are secured in the cargo compartment. Unloading the containers is carried out in the opposite order.
