August 29, 2013, 18:14 / Business

The launch customer for the Tu-204SM will be Vim-Avia or RedWings

The Russian Tu-204SM aircraft (a new modification of the Tu-204), which was under threat of closure due to a delay in entering the market (according to initial plans, its entry into the market was expected in 2010), found launch customers. The first Russian airline to receive this aircraft will be either Vim-Avia or RedWings. The first flying prototype of this aircraft was first presented at the MAKS-2013 air show.

Both airlines, with a break of one day (today - Vim-Avia, tomorrow - RedWings) sign an agreement with the leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co (IFK) to purchase 10 of these aircraft. If the contract for the purchase of Vim-Avia is approved by the board of directors of IFC, then Rashid Mursekaev’s airline (together with his wife he owns 100% of the carrier) may receive these aircraft first.

On the third day of the air show, he signed a firm contract for the supply of five Tu-204SM aircraft with an option for another five aircraft, thus becoming the first customer of this modification. But this contract is linked to another deal. The airline signed another agreement with IFC's subsidiary, IFC International Capital, headquartered in Luxembourg: the agreement of intent to purchase five Bombardier CSeries CS300 aircraft. It ordered Canadian aircraft, which are scheduled to enter the market in 2015, in a two-class configuration with 138 seats, said the airline’s general director Alexander Kochnev. Deliveries of both types of aircraft will begin in 2015. The cost of both the Tu-204SM and Bombardier is about $70 million, says IFC General Director Alexander Rubtsov. Thus, the consolidated value of both contracts is about $1 billion.

According to Kochnev, with these orders the airline begins updating its fleet, which now consists entirely of Boeing-757 aircraft. This type will begin to be phased out next year, but no decision has yet been made on the future of these aircraft. Previously, Mursekaev did not rule out the possibility of converting these airliners into a cargo version.

But there is a danger that these agreements will not be approved by the IFC board of directors. The fact is that UAC (owns 48% of the shares) is against the admission of SC300 to the Russian market. IFC entered into a contract to purchase these aircraft from Bombardier in 2011, but the company's main shareholder, UAC, approved the deal to purchase these aircraft from the Canadian manufacturer only if it were sold to foreign markets. This is how he protects his SuperJet NG, which is due to enter the market in 2016. Formally, by transferring Bombardier aircraft to its subsidiary, IFC is complying with the shareholder’s requirement. “But even in the case of a subsidiary company, a transaction to sell airliners to Russia, even from a subsidiary of IFC, must be approved by the board of directors,” explains Rubtsov.

If this does not happen, Vim-Avia may refuse these contracts, says a source in IFC. But then the launch customer, as expected, will be RedWings, which operates only eight Tu-204s of the previous generation. True, when the airline belonged to banker Alexander Lebedev, its plans were more ambitious - the businessman promised to buy 44 new Tu-204SM aircraft.

Selling Canadian CSeriers 300 aircraft in combination with Russian aircraft and through foreign subsidiaries is not the only way for IFC to circumvent the UAC requirement. Today (in the process of preparing the material) IFC entered into an agreement of intent with the Ukrainian subsidiary of the third largest Russian carrier UTair. UTair-Ukraine will also buy five CSeriers 300 aircraft.