JAKARTA. Nov 23 (Interfax-AVN) - The Indonesian market is one of the most promising for the new Russian Superjet-100 regional airliner, Vadim Razumovsky, the Sukhoi holding company's deputy director general, told Interfax-AVN on Thursday.
"The possible sales of regional airliners to Indonesia may reach 100 aircraft," he said during the Indo Defense 2006 Expo & Forum in Jakarta.
The Sukhoi Commercial Aircraft Co. has entered negotiations over the subject matter with Indonesian airlines, including Merpati, Garuda and Line Air, the latter used to operate Russian Yak-42 planes in the past. Razumovsky noted.
Indonesia overcame the crisis recently, and is actively developing its air transport market, thus needs aircraft fleet renewed. "There are more than 1,000 large islands in Indonesia. Lots of aircraft are needed to ensure links among all of them, and we are ready to offer such planes," he said.
As for other Southeast Asian countries, he said that about 200-250 more Superjet-100 class aircraft will be sold there in the coming twenty years. Except Indonesia, such aircraft are of interest to Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and some other countries.
The new Russian regional jet is intended to carry from 75 to 97 people. It will be propelled by SaM 146 engines developed in a joint venture of French Snecma and Russian Saturn. The takeoff weight of the aircraft depending on the version ranges from 35.6 to 45.9 tonnes. The range is from 2,690 to 4,800 km. Superjet-100 is one of the largest aircraft building projects in commercial aviation of Russia.
Currently, the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aircraft production association is finishing the assembly of the first experimental Superjet-100 designed for bench tests.
The price of one aircraft depending on the modification and configuration will be around $25 million.
The Superjet-100 project was included in the Russian federal program of commercial aircraft development in 2002-2010 and further to 2015, which provides for a financial support from the government. The forecast demand for Superjet-100s at internal and external routes will be 800 aircraft before 2010. Russian airlines are expected to by in excess of 150 such aircraft by 2010.