MAX contracts

The first deals were concluded at the air show

As part of the MAKS-2007 air show that opened yesterday, the Sukhoi company signed a contract to supply Indonesia with three Su-30MK2 and three Su-27SKS, as well as some aviation equipment. Delivery dates are 2008-2010, the estimated amount of the agreement is $330-350 million. However, the Commander-in-Chief of the Indonesian Armed Forces, Marshal Joko Suyanto, says that his country ideally needs one squadron of Su aircraft. So far, the Indonesians have only four of them. This contract was signed by the head of Rosoboronexport, Sergei Chemezov, and the head of the General Directorate of Defense Equipment of the Indonesian Ministry of Defense, Slamet Prihatino.

In the civilian sphere, on the first day of the air show, Russian airlines signed contracts for the purchase of domestic aircraft for a total amount of more than $500 million. There were two main contracts. The State Transport Company (STC) Rossiya purchased 12 An-148 aircraft for regional transport. This aircraft, developed by the Kyiv ASTC named after. Antonov, received a type certificate last spring. In Russia (as well as in Ukraine) its mass production is still just being established. (It was decided to organize the assembly in parallel at the Kiev Aviant plant and the Voronezh VASO.) Nevertheless, the contract stipulates that the delivery of the An-148 to Russia will begin in 2008.

And the company "Airlines 400", bought last year by the National Reserve Corporation and intending to resume operations under the new Red Wings brand, "subscribed" yesterday for six medium-haul Tu-204-100 airliners produced by the Ulyanovsk Aviastar plant. The start of deliveries under this contract is also scheduled for 2008.

Both contracts were concluded through the mediation of the leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co. Having joined the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), formed at the beginning of this year, IFC has become a de facto monopolist in the leasing of domestic aircraft and the only company that conducts this business with government financial support. IFC General Director Alexander Rubtsov refused to name the exact amount of each of the transactions concluded yesterday. The company’s press service estimated them together at “more than $500 million.”

STC Rossiya yesterday also signed a memorandum of intent with IFC on the purchase of an Il-96-300 passenger airliner for an aviation squadron serving the administration of the Russian Presidential Administration. Previously, the VASO plant had already supplied two of the same aircraft for this detachment - President Putin pays official and working visits to them. MAX came as a slight surprise when it reported that the presidential detachment had already been replenished with a third Il-96-300. State Customs Committee "Russia" exhibited it at the salon. As Vremya Novostey learned, this car was originally intended for Cuba. In 2005-2006, the Cuban state airline Cubana purchased a batch of long- and medium-haul aircraft through IFC. Initially, the Cubans wanted to take four Il-96-300s. Then they reduced this number to three, and instead of the fourth they ordered the Tu-204-100. The “fourth” Cuban Il-96 became the third in the Rossiya State Transport Company fleet. With yesterday's memorandum, Rossiya confirmed its intention to buy another Il-96, bringing the number in its fleet to four. The delivery time for this machine is not precisely defined in the memorandum.

The Avia Management Group company, which is developing the Dexter air taxi network in the central region of Russia, showed at the show its foreign purchase - a Swiss eight-seat turboprop aircraft Pilatus (PC-12). As Dexter project manager Evgeniy Andrachnikov told Vremya Novostei, the company bought five such vehicles (one has arrived in Moscow so far), and over the next five years it plans to increase their number in its fleet to 25. Until now, Dexter carries out private transportation in the Moscow region. and the areas closest to it on less spacious domestic M-101T aircraft (four to six passengers). The more spacious and faster Pilatus, Mr. Andrachnikov hopes, will “heat up” the air taxi market in the capital region.

Mikhail KUKUSHKIN, Zhukovsky