MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, a subsidiary of the state-owned Sukhoi holding, plans to sign contracts for delivery of 45-50 SuperJet 100 airplanes before the end of the year, the company's general director said Friday.
"We have already signed contracts for the delivery of 40 aircraft," Viktor Subbotin said. "We expect contracts for another 45-50 aircraft to be signed before the end of the year.
He also said about 20 planes will be sold to the Dalavia airline, adding that each 95-seat plane costs $27 million to build.
Subbotin said Aeroflot Russian Airlines [RTS: AFLT], the country's largest air carrier, has received a major discount under the contract.
The SuperJet project is a family of medium-range passenger aircraft developed by Sukhoi in cooperation with major American and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace, and Honeywell.
The maiden flight has been set for November 2006 and SuperJets-100 will go into service in late 2007-early 2008.
Sukhoi plans to produce at least 700 SuperJet planes, and intends to sell 35% of them to North America, 25% to Europe, 10% to Latin America, and 7% to Russia and China.
