Swiss heavyweight Comlux has snubbed the industry's big brands to become launch customer for the VIP version of Sukhoi's Superjet 100 airliner - just months after it was announced at the Paris air show.
The order for two Sukhoi Business Jets, plus two options, was unveiled today by SuperJet International, the venture between Alenia Aeronautica and the Russian manufacturer, which markets the jet outside the former Soviet Union and Asia.
The aircraft will be delivered in 2014, three years after the first regional jet version entered service with Armenian airline Armavia. The jets will be completed at Comlux America, the charter operator's Indianapolis outfitting unit, with auxiliary fuel tanks installed by Sukhoi.
Comlux president Richard Gaona said the company opted for the SBJ because - next to considerably more expensive Airbus Corporate Jets or Boeing Business Jets - its five-abreast cabin offered the market's largest interior in the market.
"It gives customers a large-cabin option from London to New York or Moscow to Dubai at a lower price than an Airbus or Boeing," he said.
Comlux will market the fly-by-wire jet in Moscow and Kazakhstan, two of its key business areas, and if it proves popular, "we may push the orders up to 10", said Gaona.
Comlux is the biggest charter operator of large business jets in the world, with a Boeing 767, five A320-family ACJs, four Bombardier Global Express, three Global 5000s, three
Challenger 605s and two Challenger 850s, as well as a Dassault Falcon 900LX. It has an Airbus ACJ319, two Global 6000s,
two Global 7000s and three Embraer Legacy 650s on order or
in completion.
SuperJet International chief executive Carlo Logli admitted his company was initially "skeptical" about prospects for a corporate variant of the Superjet. "But in the last two months there has been a considerable push. We have had so many requests from the market," he said. He believes there is a market for 100 Sukhoi Business Jets over 20 years.
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