Sukhoi Signs Deal with ItAli Airlines

LE BOURGET - Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi has signed a $283-million contract to supply 10 Superjet 100/95 aircraft to Italian carrier ItAli Airlines, with an option for 10 additional aircraft. The contract was signed by Sukhoi CEO Mikhail Pogosyan and top executives of the Italian regional air carrier at Le Bourget air show near Paris. Deliveries are to begin in 2009.
"The new Superjet is the ideal aircraft to allow ItAli's to grow in its national and international activities," said ItAli chairman Guiseppe Spadaccini of his company's order. The small, low-cost Italian airline is based in Pescara in central Italy.
Separately, Sukhoi announced that Italian aerospace group Alenia, a subsidiary of Finmeccanica, had completed its acquisition of a stake of 25 percent plus one share in the group's commercial plane operations, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company.
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 including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.
"Between now and 2024, Sukhoi expects to sell 800 Superjet 100s, including 300 in Russia and 500 on the Western market," said the head of commercial plane operations for the Russian group, Victor Subbotin, during a press conference.
Sukhoi had already signed deals with Russian airlines, but was searching for foreign customers. The first deliveries of the Superjet 100 to Russian clients are scheduled for 2008, but Pogosyan said his company had halted negotiations with Russia's S7 Airlines (formerly Sibir) on Superjet-100 sales.
"There are some problems with Sibir. Its development strategy has changed somewhat, so Sukhoi has closed negotiations with it on Superjet-100," Subbotin said
S7 Airlines signed a contract Monday with Airbus to buy 25 new A320 medium-haul passenger planes for more than $1.6 billion. In late May the airline had also ordered 15 Boeing-787 Dreamliners, with delivery starting in 2014.
According to Subbotin, Sukhoi is continuing negotiations with a number of Russian and European air carriers, about 30 in total. The Russian group has suggested in the past that Air France and Scandinavian airline SAS are interested, as well as German rival Lufthansa. Demand for regional jets, passenger planes of less than 100 seats, has risen in line with the market for large commercial aircraft as the booming global economy continues to boost the travel industry.
Small jet makers Bombardier from Canada and Embraer from Brazil have reaped the benefits, thriving in a part of the aircraft business neglected by the powerful duo of Airbus and Boeing.
Besides Sukhoi, there are a number of other companies entering this market worldwide.
A consortium of Chinese companies and research institutes have been working on a Chinese regional jet, the ARJ21, which is set to begin flights next year.
Earlier this week, the China Aviation Industry Corporation, the state company in charge of the project, signed a cooperation deal with Bombardier to extend its range of planes.
The Canadian group is to invest $100 million in the development of a ARJ21-900, a bigger version of the ARJ21. The companies have pledged to share technical information.