Superjet International, a joint venture between Russia's Sukhoi Company and Italy's Alenia Aeronautica set up to focus on marketing and sales on western markets, announced that a deal for the sale of five Superjet 100s had been signed with AMO on Wednesday, with deliveries scheduled to start in 2011.
The company said that they had secured 20 solid orders with an unnamed European customer, adding that more contracts were pending with announcements to follow in the near future.
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 manufacture at least 700 Superjet 100s, and intends to sell 35% of them to North America, 25% to Europe, 10% to Latin America, and 7% to Russia and China.
The airliner made its first test flights in May and Sukhoi is planning to start Superjet 100 deliveries to clients in the second half of 2009.
However, Russian flagship carrier Aeroflot said last Thursday it had received notice from the Sukhoi holding that deliveries originally scheduled for 2008 would be postponed until the third quarter of 2009.
Sukhoi, which is part of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation, currently sells only military aircraft. It is well-known for its Su-family of fighters, including the new Su-35 Flanker-E multirole fighter, which successfully completed its first demonstration flight on July 7. (VIDEO)
The company has said it plans to have an equal share of civilian and military aircraft in its production portfolio by 2015.
