Lev Lanovsky, the chief Tu-204 designer at the Tupolev aviation complex, said Tuesday that a team of Chinese officials would arrive in Moscow this weekend to meet with Tupolev Design Bureau officials.
"We will have a 20-strong delegation from China, including Chinese aviation authorities and other aviation professionals, visiting this weekend," Lanovsky, said.
The U.K.-based industry journal Flight International, in its current edition, quoted a Chinese official as saying, "We have the plan to purchase Russian airplanes."
He added, however, that the Chinese government still needed to approve the plan.
China is looking at buying at least 10 ?€” and as many as 32 ?€” Tu-204s, said the official from the Chinese authority in charge of importing planes, Reuters reported.
The Tu-204, a medium-range 200-seater designed in the late 1980s and certified in 1994, is currently used by Russia's strongest regional airlines, including Sibir, KrasAir and Kavminvodyavia. Flagship carrier Aeroflot is also showing interest.
Depending on which engine the plane is powered by ?€” the Rolls-Royce RB211-535E4 or the domestically produced PS-90A ?€” the price tag runs to between $22 million and $30 million.
Asked about the size of the order being discussed, Lanovsky said there have been various reports of between 10 and 30, but a specific number had not been determined.
Lanovsky said the Chinese delegation would first visit Tupolev in Moscow and then the Aviastar plant in the Volga region city of Ulyanovsk, where the planes are manufactured
Flight International suggested that China's interest in Tupolev over the more popular Boeing 757 is a result of the recent diplomatic tensions between China and the United States.
"The feeling we have now is that they are switching from America to us," Lanovsky said.
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