Ukrainian airframer Aviant has completed assembly of its first serially-built Antonov An-148 regional twin-jet.
The aircraft is to be rolled out by 29 December in the presence of the country's prime minister and presidential candidate Yulia Timoshenko.
Kiev-based Aviant has 10 An-148 orders of which four are from domestic state-owned lessor Lizingtechtrans and six from Kazakh carrier SCAT.
Lizingtechtrans director Alexander Vlasishen says it will lease the entire batch to Antonov Airlines which is expected, in turn, to wet-lease these aircraft to AeroSvit.
AeroSvit began domestic commercial services with the type in June, using one of the two pre-production examples owned by Antonov. The carrier is intending to redeploy the 68-seat jet to the Kiev-Moscow route next week.
Aviant has reportedly painted the first serial An-148 in AeroSvit's livery.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news