Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) has signed a series of agreements with EADS which would see the Russian manufacturer become a risk share partner on the Airbus A350XWB programme and establish a joint venture to set up freighter conversion centres for Airbus A320 family aircraft.
Under the A350 agreement, Airbus has offered Russia a 5% airframe participation. EADS says discussions about which components of the aircraft will be designed and built in Russia are “still ongoing”.
The A320 agreement will see the two companies establish a joint venture to set up freighter conversion centres at Lukhovitsy near Moscow and in Dresden. A third agreement involves a joint study of the transport aircraft market by EADS and UAC, with the possibility for co-operation in this field.
UAC has also agreed to purchase Kaskol’s stake in Moscow-based engineering centre ECAR, which was set up in 2004 by Airbus in co-operation with Kaskol.
The agreements were signed by EADS CEO Tom Enders, Airbus chief operating officer Fabrice Bregier, EADS EFW CEO Andreas Sperl and UAC president Alexey Fedorov, and are based on the findings of a top level working group established at the end of last year.
It comes as Airbus today announced Russian carrier Aeroflot has signed a preliminary deal for its long awaited purchase of 22 A350XWBs and ten A330s.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
