A spokesman for AT&T in Moscow said that the U.S. firm will supply by the middle of 1995 its Clearlink CL-400 satellite communications system to Sirena, a consortium of airlines and banks in the former Soviet republics.
The new system, worth an estimated $20 million, will provide a link between different parts of the Sirena-3 program, which is designed to upgrade the archaic ticketing and cargo reservation network used by airlines in the former U.S.S.R.
The Sirena system would enable local airline offices to offer passengers an automatic ticketing and reservation service for both domestic and international flights and enable easier tracking of cargo.
Currently, regional ticket offices in Russia cannot sell international tickets. Moreover, a passenger in Vladivostok in the Far East who wants to fly to the Black Sea resort of Sochi via Moscow cannot buy a ticket for his trip at his local Aeroflot office.
The Sirena program was initiated in 1991, when Aeroflot and the computer company IBM signed an agreement under which IBM promised to develop the system. But the program, originally scheduled to be completed by the end of 1994, has been delayed by financial problems.
Yury Darymov, Sirena's deputy general director, said Monday that the U.S. Ex-Im bank had agreed in principle to provide the company with an $80 million loan to carry out the Sirena-3 project.
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