"At present, our production lines are mostly oriented toward the manufacture of military aircraft, but by 2010-2015 we must achieve balanced development of military and civilian components," Mikhail Pogosyan said at a business forum in Khabarovsk, in Russia's Far East.
The Sukhoi SuperJet-100 is the company's key program in the development of civilian aircraft.
The family of medium-haul passenger aircraft was 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 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 overall market for the SuperJet-100 is estimated at about 5,500 airliners, worth $100 billion, up to 2023.
So far, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, a subsidiary of the Sukhoi holding, has secured over 60 orders for its regional aircraft. Aeroflot, Russia's leading air carrier, is one of the largest clients, with contracts for the delivery of at least 45 planes.
At the Paris Air Show in June, Sukhoi signed a $283-million contract to supply 10 Superjet-100s to Italian carrier ItAli Airlines. Sukhoi said in July it would build the first nine SuperJet-100 regional aircraft in 2008.
At the same time, the company is planning to continue the modernization and production of its famous family of military aircraft, including Su-27 and Su-30 Flanker fighters, Su-33 Flanker-D naval fighters, Su-34 Fullback strike aircraft and Su-35 Flanker-E air superiority fighters.
"I believe it is important to set our goals not only to modernize existing aircraft, but also to continue the development of fifth-generation combat planes, which will fill up our production capacity for decades to come," Pogosyan said.
