LE BOURGET (France), June 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi has signed a $283-million contract to supply ten Superjet 100 aircraft to Italian carrier ItAli Airlines.
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.
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 Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace, and Honeywell.
Sukhoi plans to produce at least 700 RRJs, and intends to sell 35% of them to North America, 25% to Europe, 10% to Latin America, and 7% to Russia and China.
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," he said, adding that his company is continuing negotiations with a number of Russian and European air carriers, about 30 in total.
Italy's Finmeccanica and Alenia-Aeronautica signed an agreement with the state-owned Sukhoi holding and its subsidiary, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, to jointly acquire a blocking stake (25% plus one share) in Sukhoi. The deal is subject to approval by the Russian and Italian governments.
Under the deal, the Italian companies will provide at least 25% of investment for the Superjet-100 project.
