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Aeroflot, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft and VEB will sign an agreement next week under which the bank will finance the delivery of Superjet aircraft to , Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko said Monday.
The sides will sign the contract at the annual MAKS Aviation Salon, Khristenko said. The event will take place Aug. 18 through 23 in Zhukovsky, a town in the Moscow region.
Aeroflot ordered 30 Superjets at a discounted price of $21 million, which was later increased by about $1.4 million because of additional equipment expenses. VEB is expected to finance 10 aircraft through its VEB-Leasing subsidiary.
Aeroflot and Armenian airline Armavia are expected to receive the first two Superjets by the end of the year.
Three aircraft are undergoing testing, and 13 more are in various stages of completion, Khristenko said. Twenty Superjets will be produced in 2010, and by 2013 Sukhoi hopes to produce as many as 70 per year.
Sukhoi currently has orders for 122 Superjets.
“I don’t want to speculate on how many more contracts will be signed during MAKS,” Khristenko said. “It’s not the best time to sign contracts.”
Since 2004, state support for the aviation construction industry increased twentyfold, to about 90 billion rubles ($2.8 billion) in 2009, Khristenko said.
The substantial government support is meant to “guide the corporations through the difficult period,” Khristenko said, referring to the three main aviation construction concerns in Russia: the , United Engine Building Corporation and Russian Helicopters.
The restructuring of these industries is complete, but the next step, which is raising capital through share sales, has been postponed because “it’s bad manners to go public right now,” he said.
Steady demand for Russian civilian aircraft can save the industry, Khristenko said, expressing hope that planned airline Rosavia, a joint venture between Russian Technologies and the Moscow government, will become a significant partner for the local industry.
Some analysts have called Rosavia dead in the water, since little progress has been made on its development. Khristenko was more optimistic, however, saying of the airline, “I wish them more health than I do myself.”
The Russian industry hopes to take a 5 percent market share for regional and mid-range planes in 2015 and up to 10 percent by 2025. But there are currently only two Russian planes ready to begin operations in this segment: the regional Superjet and the An-148, so “we will have to work hard” to reach those goals, said Oleg Panteleyev, an independent analyst.
“But it will be possible in the segments where UAC will have a product,” Panteleyev said.
UAC’s highly awaited candidate for the mid-range segment, the MS-21, will likely be available only in 2020. Russia has no projects for a long-range aircraft, Khristenko said.
