Sukhoi Civil Aircraft has signed a heads of agreement with Avialeasing of Russia for 24 Superjet 100 aircraft with options on a further 16. The deal is worth $630 million and adds to the company’s existing order book of 73 aircraft.
And the Russian firm is promising additional orders will be announced later at Farnborough, with a non-Russian operator expected to be one of the new customers.
The heads of agreement was signed between Victor Soubottin, president of Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company and Avialeasing deputy chairman Victor Novikov. “We are confident the Sukhoi Superjet 100 allows for increased economical efficiency of regional flights at reasonable expense and will be in demand from Russian airlines,” says Novikov.
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Soubottin says: “We are delighted to see that the Sukhoi Superjet 100 expands its presence on the Russian market. Today, upon the completion of the first stage factory flight tests, I am sure it will meet airline expectations.” The firm contract is expected to be signed within six months.
The first Superjet successfully completed its maiden flight in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on May 19 this year. It has now completed 12 flights and flown for more than 30 hours. Soubottin says the results of the test programme to date show the aircraft is performing in line with design expectations.
“The pilots reported good balance and control of the aircraft,” he says. “By the end of the year we will introduce four aircraft into the Certification programme.” He acknowledges the programme has suffered a “small shift to the right” but says Sukhoi is pursuing “a very aggressive Certification programme.”
He says: “We will finish the programme by mid-2009 and deliveries should start in the third quarter of 2009.” He adds that the Sukhoi design team is also looking at a number of variants of the Superjet, including executive, freight and stretch versions.
Source: Flight International
