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Russia says no delays in Sukhoi Superjet 100 deliveries

Business Materials 27 March 2008 00:38 (UTC +04:00)

Russia's United Aircraft Building Corporation will meet delivery terms for its new Sukhoi Superjet 100 medium-haul passenger airliner, a first deputy prime minister said Wednesday. ( RIA Novosti)

"The UABC is not disrupting anything," Sergei Ivanov said.

UABC CEO Alexei Fyodorov said Monday deliveries of the first Superjet 100 aircraft had been postponed over test delays.

"The UABC has never exactly said when the tests are due to be completed in the first place," Ivanov said, adding that they will take no more than a year.

Fyodorov said that the first test flight was planned for next month.

A spokesman for Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, a civilian subsidiary of the Sukhoi aircraft manufacturer, confirmed on Monday that the first Superjet 100 would make its maiden flight in April.

"Our specialists are working round the clock to meet our obligations to contractors," he said.

Olga Kayukova, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft's director for public relations, said another two Superjet 100 airplanes were in the final stages of assembly, and a fourth jet was on its way.

"That will enable us to certify all four prototype aircraft within the specified timeframe," she said.

Originally, the first Superjet 100 deliveries were to be made in late 2008.

The Superjet 100 project is a family of medium-range passenger aircraft developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau in cooperation with major American and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace, and Honeywell.

Sukhoi aircraft manufacturer successfully tested Superjet 100 engines in mid-February.

The company plans to manufacture at least 700 Superjet 100s, and intends to sell 35% of them to North America, 25% to Europe, 10% to Latin America, and 7% to Russia and China.

Mikhail Pogosyan, Sukhoi's general director, said in January that the company had secured 73 solid orders for the aircraft.

The list price of a 95-seat base model is $28 million, but the company is currently working on both smaller and larger capacity modifications.

The market for the Superjet 100 is estimated at around $100 billion for around 5,500 planes, through to 2023.

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