Antonov An-148 An-148-100A

The project dates to the early 1990s, when Antonov began modifying the existing An-74 for passenger duties under Petro Balabuev. In 2001 the programme was redesignated An-148. The changes from the An-74 were a longer fuselage and a clean-sheet wing. The high wing was retained because it suited operations from austere strips, an argument aimed at operators in remote parts of Russia, Africa and Asia. The chosen powerplant was a pair of Ukrainian Motor Sich D-436-148s, although in the mid-2000s Antonov openly considered versions with Western engines — General Electric CF34 or Rolls-Royce BR700 — of 58.86 to 78.48 kN thrust.

Production of the first three prototypes began in 2002 at AVIANT; the first flew on 17 December 2004. On 26 February 2007 the aircraft, its D-436-148 engine and the AI-450-МS auxiliary power unit were certified by Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee and Ukraine's State Aviation Administration. On 2 June 2009 the An-148 entered commercial service with Ukraine's Aerosvit, on the Kharkiv-Kyiv flight of aircraft UR-NTA, and on 21 December 2009 in Russia with Rossiya.

The An-148-100 is the family's main model: 70 passengers at 864 mm seat pitch, up to 80 at 762 mm, in a one-class 2+3 layout, plus multi-class configurations with fewer seats and four-abreast business class. The engines are podded under the high wing, protecting engines and structure from foreign object damage. The flight deck presents information on five 15 by 20 cm liquid crystal displays built by Russia's Aviapribor, and the aircraft has fly-by-wire flight controls. Like the Boeing 737, the main gear retracts into the belly with partial doors and the sides of the tyres exposed. It has a built-in airstair for boarding without ground equipment.

The An-148 was built at the Kyiv AVIANT plant — today the Antonov Serial Production Plant — and at VASO in Voronezh, the latter under licence. Under the 2005 production-sharing agreement, Russian enterprises made nearly 70% of the components; VASO supplied the tail section, rear fuselage, engine pylons and high-lift devices. In 2009 the list price was about $24–30 million. The persistent problem was the production rate, slow and hard to expand: between 2009 and 2018 VASO completed 33 aircraft. In early 2018 Ukraine banned sales of Progress D-436 engines to Russia as a consequence of the 2014 annexation of Crimea, and in October that year VASO formally replaced its An-148 line with one for the Ilyushin Il-112.

On 5 March 2011 a VASO-assembled An-148 with test registration 61708 broke up in flight over Russia's Belgorod Oblast, killing all six crew; the investigation found the crew had let the aircraft accelerate more than 60 knots beyond its never-exceed speed in an emergency descent. On 11 February 2018 Saratov Airlines Flight 703 crashed shortly after take-off near Ramenskoye with 65 passengers and six crew, with no survivors: the type's first fatal commercial accident. After it, the Russian Ministry of Transport grounded every An-148 and An-158 in the country. By the end of 2021 the type remained in commercial service with a handful of carriers: North Korea's Air Koryo, Russia's Angara Airlines and Ukraine's Air Ocean Airlines.

The English Wikipedia gives the An-148-100A 85 seats in a one-class dense layout and 68 in two classes; the Spanish one gives 75 in a single class and the same 68 in two, and in its general text speaks of 74 passengers. All three figures are recorded without choosing.