Transaero, one of Russia's largest airlines, will buy six Sukhoi Superjet 100 planes for short-haul domestic flights, Transaero’s deputy head, Dmitry Stolyarov said on Friday.
The planes, each worth of $35.4 million, will be used for short-haul domestic flights and will be delivered starting from 2015, Stolyarov said.
“This purchase is a response to a growing demand for regional flights in Russia,” Stolyarov said, adding that the aircraft is expected to operate in Transaero’s St.Petersburg hub and its Far Eastern hub in the city of Khabarovsk.
The aircraft developer, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, confirmed ongoing negotiations with Transaero but refused to give further details.
“Transaero expressed interest in buying our planes but we cannot comment on the number of jets that are expected to be sold,” Sukhoi Civil Aircraft’s spokesman Andrei Muravyev said.
The deal is Transaero’s third biggest purchase to date. In October 2011, the carrier signed a $1.5 billion agreement with the European Airbus consortium to buy four A380 aircraft. Deliveries will start from the fourth quarter of 2015.
In November, the $1.3 billion deal with the U.S. Boeing made Transaero the first airline in Russia, the CIS and East European countries to operate the long-haul wide-body Boeing-747-8.
Superjet 100 is a medium-haul passenger aircraft developed by Sukhoi in cooperation with U.S. and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.
The aircraft is capable of carrying up to 100 passengers for up to 4,500 kilometers.
