PAUL DUFFY & VLADAMIR KARNOZOV / MOSCOW
Investors have been found for the troubled Russian Aviastar plant in Ulyanovsk - which builds the Tupolev Tu-204 - with the aim of ensuring a consistent annual output of four-five aircraft.
Tupolev chairman and general designer Igor Shevchuk says two investors - understood to be Egypt's Kato Aromatic (the parent of Tu-204 lessor Sirocco Aerospace) and Russia's Leader group - are prepared to fund 30-50 new airframes in 2003-05. "We also have to find ways to resume production of the [Aviadvigatel] PS-90A engine, as the stock of parts at [engine manufacturer] Perm Motors is depleted," Shevchuk says.
Aviastar plans to build five or six Tu-204s this year, including two Rolls-Royce RB211-powered -120C freighters for Sirocco. The remainder will be PS-90A-powered -100s for Russian-based airlines. Aviastar also holds orders for five Tu-204-120Cs equipped with English-language cockpits, Honeywell auxiliary power units and radio equipment, for two Chinese airlines.
The final agreement for these aircraft will be signed in early March, says Shevchuk, and the first will be delivered within 18 months. The first English language cockpit-equipped Tu-204 will be used in the Joint Aviation Authorities certification programme prior to delivery to China.
Freight operator TNT is expected to receive its first Tu-204-120C, leased from Kato-owned Egyptian airline Air Cairo, while the first of the airline's two dedicated aircraft is expected to be completed within weeks. The second is on schedule for delivery in May.
Meanwhile, Rosaviakosmos, the Russian air and space agency, has committed to fund the completion and certification of the first Tu-204-300 shrink-derivative - the first flight is planned for this year. KMV, a Stavropol-based carrier, is interested in acquiring the smaller, longer range version of the Tu-204.
The Kazan-based KAPO factory, meanwhile, is to deliver an unspecified number of the longer-range Tu-214 model to Moscow-based carrier GTK Rossiya, and one to Khabarovsk-based airline DalAvia. A deal to supply two Tu-214s to Ekaterinburg-based Ural Airlines is close to completion, says the airline general director Sergei Skuratov.
Source: Flight International
