RRJ (Russian Regional Jet) is a new family of civillian passenger aircraft, made by Russia’s Sukhoi company, in partnership with Boeing, Tupolev and Yakovlev.
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Aircraft Maker Order Book Rises to $1.5 Bln
COMBINED REPORTS
MOSCOW – Aircraft maker Sukhoi, keen to make more civil jets, struck deals to sell a total of 77 airplanes to Russian customers last week at the Farnborough Air Show in Great Britain, a company official said Friday.
Sukhoi will sell 20 planes to domestic airline UTair, the official said. Adding to deals announced earlier in the week – a 50-jet order from No. 2 domestic carrier Sibir, and a seven-jet order from Russia’s postal service, “brings the total number to 77 planes,” said the source, who asked to remain unnamed. “And this means the total sum is now $1.5 billion,” the source said.
The agreement to sell 50 jets to Sibir, Russia’s fastest-growing airline, is worth more than $1 billion and is the first for its Russian Regional Jet (RRJ) program.
RRJ is at the center of Sukhoi’s plan to diversify production and make more civil aircraft. Boeing, Ilyushin and Yakovlev are its partners in the project.
The jets sell for between $20 million and $25 million each and are expected to hit the market in 2007.
UTair is one of the world’s biggest helicopter operators and a major United Nations airlift provider. UTair’s helicopters are involved in peacekeeping operations ranging from East Timor to Iraq.
Sukhoi has said some European carriers – Air France, Lufthansa and Iberia – had already expressed an interest in the project and that there were “interested parties” in Southeast Asia.
(Reuters, SPT)
By: KabirT - 4th August 2004 at 05:07
I believe Russian manufacturers can make cheaper products than what Airbus and Boeing are offering, by cheaper i mean not compremising in quality whatsoever but taking advantage of its cheap industrial labour and colaborating with its allies such as India who are growing names in the world aviation sector. The Indo-Russian light commuter aircraft project by HAL and Sukhoi should be approached with a good interest by Russia. If Russians do what they are capable of they can easily tap the markets in Asia and S.E. Asia with CIS, which in the future is a majour economicaly growing part of the world. And who knows, if they make a decent aircraft operators from Europe and USA also could show interest.
By: Whiskey Delta - 4th August 2004 at 03:59
Plus they were facing stiff competition in that aircraft market from Boeing and Airbus. This mid-sized jet market has only started in the last year so they have a better chance of surviving in this market baring they get the backing they need as you said KabirT.
Bombardier made the announcement of their mid-sized jet entry at Farnborough, the C-Series:
Bombardier Aerospace announced today the name of its new commercial aircraft family and revealed the aircraft’s distinctive black and white livery.
The CSeries, for Competitive, Continental, Connector, would target airlines operating aircraft in the lower end of the 100- to 150-passenger market, a large segment that is not well served by any aircraft in production today. Many air carriers in that category currently rely on aging DC9, Fokker 100, Boeing 737 Classic, BAe-146, MD80 and other aircraft that are scheduled to retire by the end of the decade, leaving the field open for innovative replacements.
“The market for the 100- to 150-passenger commercial aircraft segment is estimated at $250 billion U.S., or roughly 6,000 aircraft over the next 20 years,” said Gary Scott, President, Bombardier New Commercial Aircraft Program. “There is a huge potential customer base in the lower end of this segment, especially among existing main line and the fast growing low cost carriers. We are very excited about the prospects of developing a new family of aircraft that is optimized to meet their needs. And I’m pleased to say our customers are telling us the same thing.”
During its year-long feasibility study, Bombardier will develop a family of aircraft that focuses on the needs of this market with specifications that will see the CSeries aircraft family operate at costs 15 per cent lower than aircraft currently in production and 20 per cent lower than older out of production airplanes in use today.
The CSeries aircraft family will be designed in two basic five-seat abreast versions. One version will be designed to carry 110- to 115-passengers, while a larger version will seat 130- to 135-passengers. Each of the two variants can be configured for either short-haul travel with a 1,800 nautical mile range or for transcontinental flights of up to 3,200 nautical miles.
“Like our customers, I’m very excited about our new commercial aircraft offering and I look forward to bringing it to Bombardier’s leadership and Board of Directors for approval to offer early next year,” concluded Mr. Scott.
By: KabirT - 4th August 2004 at 02:27
nice to see you again mongu. 🙂
Russians did make a quality product in the TU 204. But they did not get any financial backing from the government and the marketing was almost non-existing. They should have got there examples to shows like AeroIndia and Singapore and Dubai airshows.
By: Whiskey Delta - 3rd August 2004 at 18:31
question is how many countries except CIS nations are ready to accept a Russian project. Thats why i said Russia needs to make a world class product and market it well.
You’re right, it’s going to be a tough sell for them but they only need 1 company to put their faith in this product to demonstrate the quality of their aircraft.
By: robbelc - 3rd August 2004 at 18:20
I picked up a lot of info at Farnborough on this interesting project. Amazing that russia only produced 26 airliners in 2003. I always though that the engines were thirsty as spares supply were big negatives about russian aircraft. Did the TU204 ever get re-engined?
By: mongu - 3rd August 2004 at 17:55
They badly need one or two high profile Western customers.
Russian aircraft still have a poor reputation for safety/reliability. Whilst this may be partly untrue, only by witnessing a reputable major western carrier place a large order will other carriers even start to consider the RRJ.
The makers will need to offer somebody a deal with vary good terms, as nobody wants to be first!
I don’t know who that could be, although BA will I think need to replace their 146/ RJ100 fleet before too much longer. Will they stick to Embraer and add more ERJ 145s and some 170s / 190s, or take a chance on Russia?
By: KabirT - 3rd August 2004 at 10:10
This market will be the next big boom (50-100 seat jets). With their early entry they could very well have some success. Right now only Embraer and Sukhoi are the only 2 offering “true” 50-100 seat jets (I don’t count the CRJ700/900). Bombardier announced their intention of building a similar product but by the time they get the first one out the door Embraer and Sukhoi could very well steal most of the business. I look forward to seeing this Russian entry.
question is how many countries except CIS nations are ready to accept a Russian project. Thats why i said Russia needs to make a world class product and market it well.
By: Whiskey Delta - 3rd August 2004 at 06:19
This market will be the next big boom (50-100 seat jets). With their early entry they could very well have some success. Right now only Embraer and Sukhoi are the only 2 offering “true” 50-100 seat jets (I don’t count the CRJ700/900). Bombardier announced their intention of building a similar product but by the time they get the first one out the door Embraer and Sukhoi could very well steal most of the business. I look forward to seeing this Russian entry.
By: dartie - 3rd August 2004 at 06:13
They kind of look like an Airbus to me on the nose and the style of the cockpit windows!
By: KabirT - 3rd August 2004 at 03:36
Interesting project…. again if the Russians are able to make it perform good and market it well it has good potential.
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August 3, 2004 at 2:50 am