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Aviation History
1997
1997 - 1376.PDF
RUSSIAN AEROSPACE '97 Partnerships struck between Russia's aerospace industry and Western manufacturers are nearing fruition. Nearly 250 delegates from around the world discussed progress at the Russian Aerospace 97 conference hosted by Flight International and Aviaexport in Moscow on 20-22 May. Max Kingsley- Jones and Kevin 0 Toole report Minister warns industry on need to restructure RUSSIA'S aerospace industry must regroup around as few as two Western-style integrated com panies which will have to survive without state support, warns An drew Svinarenko, the country's first deputy minister of economics, who has now taken over responsi bility for restructuring the coun try's aviation sector. "We need to have integrated and market-oriented companies," says Svinarenko, leaving only "two to four" leading aerospace corpora tions bringing together research, design, manufacturing and mar keting. They may also bring in enterprises from outside aero space, he says. Beneath this, he adds, would be a second tier of around ten major integrated en gine and systems houses. He adds that die new corpora tions will also have to be increas ingly self-financing. "In the past, the industry has always relied on Government funding, but that is wrong," he says. Svinarenko's comments are the first public statement from die eco nomics ministry on how it intends to conduct its relations with the aerospace industry. Until die shake-up earlier this year, die sec tor had been under die wing of die military industrial complex. The economics ministry will continue with the funding pro gramme put in place dirough to the year 2000, as well as supporting debt restructuring and research- and-development spending for several civil-aircraft projects, says Svinarenko. He adds that die choice of programmes will be the subject of a review with die trans port ministry and with the coun try's airline industry. He also pledges that the eco nomics ministry will "...help in developing new forms of financ ing", steering die industry towards funds from Russian banks and leas ing companies. The industry should "...also take advantage of Western partners in aerospace and aviation", he says. There are also calls within the industry for integration between the defence and civil sectors. Alexey Federov, general director of die AVPK Sukhoi military-indus trial grouping, believes that Russia needs at least a couple of broad- based world-class companies to compete with Western giants such as Boeing/McDonnell Douglas. He says that die basis of this inte gration could come from bringing Sukhoi and Mikoyan, now part of the VPK MAPO grouping, together with bureaux such as Ilyushin, Mil and Tupolev, and to create large and diversified state- holding companies. He warns diat other enterprises "...may need to be declared bankrupt" as restruc turing accelerates. Alliances are increasingly being discussed within the industry, but it is likely to be at least another two years before major moves are taken, says Federov. Alexander Ageev, head of strate gic planning at VPK MAPO, says that the creation of large consoli dated groups is essential if Russia is to compete in export markets. He says that VPK MAPO itself is still working to achieve "100% integration" between its 12 compa nies now brought together within the group. He admits that integration will have to overcome some major hur dles, including the politics and rivalries between the different design and production houses. Valentin Klimov, general direc tor of Tupolev, blundy rejected talk of mergers. "Design bureaux and production companies should work as self-contained enterprises, keeping their different traditions and expertise," he says. • ARIA claims selecting Western aircraft was 'mistake7 A EROFLOT-Russian Inter national Airlines (ARIA) made a "mistake" in attempting to base its fleet around Western-built aircraft, says Valery Okulov, the airline's general director. "In die past, we thought we could work on the basis of Western aircraft, but we now know that was a mistake. We cannot base our strategy on leasing foreign equip ment alone," says Okulov, pointing to the costs of leasing and main taining Western aircraft types. He says that a model has been drawn up of the "ideal" fleet, which includes a mix of Western- and Russian-built airliner types. "The aviation industry in Russia has a chance to take part in our develop ment," he adds. Okulev's predecessor came under heavy criticism in 1996 over plans to take ten Boeing 737s, in a deal eventually signed in April. ARIA has 13 Western-built air craft, including ten Airbus A310s, two Boeing 767-3OOERs and one McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30F ARIA has since signed for 17 Russian-built Ilyushin Il-96Ms and three I1-96T freighters. Okulev says that the Tupolev Tu-204 and increased gross-weight Tu-214 will also form part of the fleet plans through to 2010, in addition to the Ilyushin 11-114 64-seat turboprop. The plan is to use the II-114 to develop ARIAs strategy of setting up regional hubs all over Russia. The airline has been working to improve the performance of Perm PS90A engines through the signing of a power-by- the-hour deal with the manufacturer. The aim was to take the engine- Okulov: Western errors utilisation rates up from only 5.4h per day up to 6h. Okulev says that the rates are up to 7.8h, and the air line is trying to form sim ilar relationships with other Russian suppliers. Meanwhile, plans are under way to keep the Russian-built fleet in the air. The most pressing issue is the updating of communications equip ment to meet the new Eurocontrol rules on radio frequencies, to take effect in 1998. • 8 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 28 May - 3 June 1997
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