The Fairchild Dornier 728 regional jet family project is likely to be terminated after no buyer was found by the German company's insolvency accountants Schultze & Braun. Russian aluminium company Basic Element, which had previously expressed an interest in manufacturing the aircraft, says that its interest is reduced to an "option", after the assembly plant in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich, was sold to Swiss Airbus subcontractor RUAG Suisse. RUAG outbid the Russians in acquiring the production lines for the 728 and Airbus subcontract work. RUAG also acquired the maintenance and spare-parts division.
The viability of the 728 programme without its assembly line is doubtful, and two other proposals have been rejected as offering "inadequate" funding, says administrator Eberhard Braun. A deal to sell the production line for the 32-seat 328JET regional jet programme to Leesburg, Virginia-based AvCraft Aviation is "almost completed", based on trade regulation legalities, he says.
Source: Flight International
