Second-ranked airline Transaero has signed a deal to buy four Airbus A380 super-jumbo jets worth a combined $1.7 billion at list prices, and it placed an order for Superjet-100s.
Deliveries will begin in 2015, Transaero chief executive Olga Pleshakova told reporters Thursday during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
The privately owned airline secured financing from state bank VEB after reaching a provisional agreement to buy the aircraft last year.
The long-haul A380 jets, to carry up to 700 passengers, will operate on Asian, Central American and European routes, Pleshakova said.
Transaero also agreed to buy six Sukhoi Superjet-100 planes, which will be delivered between 2015 and 2017 and are worth $212.4 million altogether.
The airline also signed an option to acquire 10 more of the planes.
The plane, built using Western technology, is Russia's first civil aircraft designed after the fall of the Soviet Union.
In other aviation news, an Aeroflot superjet had to return to the Nizhny Novgorod airport Thursday after developing technical problems.
The same aircraft had to turn back after taking off from Sheremetyevo Airport on Monday, the Life News tabloid reported.
(Reuters, MT)