In civilian service, the Tu-104 carried over 90 million passengers with Aeroflot (then the world's largest airline), and a lesser number with ČSA, while it also was operated by the Soviet Air Force.

The crew consisted of two pilots, a navigator (seated in the glazed "bomber" nose), a flight engineer, and a radio operator (later eliminated).

The airplane raised great curiosity by its lavish "Victorian" interior – so-called by some Western observers – due to the materials used: mahogany, copper, and lace.

The Tu-104 was considered difficult to fly, as it was heavy on controls and quite fast on final approach, and at low speeds displayed a tendency to stall, a feature common with highly swept wings.

[1] By 1957, Aeroflot had placed the Tu-104 in service on routes from Vnukovo Airport in Moscow to London, Budapest, Copenhagen, Beijing, Brussels, Ottawa, Delhi, and Prague.

[citation needed] In 1957, ČSA Czechoslovak Airlines became the only export customer for the Tu-104, placing the aircraft on routes to Moscow, Paris, and Brussels.

Aeroflot retired the Tu-104 from civilian service in March 1979 following a fatal accident at Moscow, but several aircraft were transferred to the Soviet military, which used them as staff transports and to train cosmonauts in zero gravity.

[3] Data from: [1] According to the American Flight Safety Foundation, between 1958 and 1981, 16 Tu-104s were lost in crashes out of 37 aircraft written off (hull loss rate = 18%) with a total of 1140 fatalities.