Russian carrier UTAir is to place a firm order for new ATR 72-500 regional aircraft next week and select a Western twinjet for mainline routes.
The airline's fleet management chief Alexei Budnik says the contract, due to be signed with ATR on 7 April, will cover the supply of 20 turboprops.
They will complement, rather than replace, three ATR 72-200s and 12 ATR 42-300s in the carrier's fleet.
"We've postponed phasing out older models as we need a greater capacity to develop regional services," says Budnik.
UTAir is also evaluating Boeing and Airbus narrowbody types for deployment on its mainline routes, which are currently served by two dozen older-variant 737s and some 20 Tupolev Tu-154M aircraft.
Budnik says negotiations with both Western airframers are in progress. He adds: "The size of an order for 737 modern variants or A320s could be in two-digit numbers."
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
