SUKHOI SAYS ARMENIAN AIRLINE TO RECEIVE FIRST SUPERJET 100 SOON

RIA Novosti
14:17 | 11/ 05/ 2009

KOMSOMOLSK-ON-AMUR, May 11 (RIA Novosti) – The first Sukhoi Superjet
100 passenger airplane will be delivered to Armenia’s national airline
Armavia, the Russian aircraft maker announced on Monday.

Sukhoi Civil Aircraft’s public relations director Olga Kayukova said
Armavia would be the first recipient of a Superjet 100 because it had
ordered a plane with a basic configuration. She added that the airliner
was in the final stages of assembly and would be delivered soon.

"Configuration is determined by the customer," she told
journalists. "The simpler the configuration, the simpler it is to
make the aircraft."

Kayukova said the list price of a Superjet 100 was $28 million, but
each aircraft was individually priced depending on the configuration.

She said 98 orders had been received, including 30 from Russian
flagship carrier Aeroflot and 10 from Italian companies. "Some down
payments have been received," she said.

Sukhoi’s general director, Mikhail Pogosyan, admitted that financing
the construction of the planes was a problem.

"We cannot resolve this without government support," he told
journalists on Monday, adding that during the financial crisis
"airlines do not possess the necessary financial stability to invest
in the production of aircraft."

During a visit to the Superjet assembly line in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on
Monday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the Russian government had
allocated 6.8 billion rubles ($210 million) to Sukhoi Civil Aircraft
to realize the Superjet project.

"The increase in financing is connected with some rises in the price
of production and accessories," Putin told workers.

The Superjet 100 project is a family of medium-haul passenger aircraft
developed by Sukhoi in cooperation with U.S. and European aviation
corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty,
Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.