Sukhoi SuperJet-100. IMAGE: Pascal Rossignol / Reuters
At Farnborough Air Show 2018 Mr. Alexander Rubtsov, President of the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company, and Mr. Cesar Cataño, founder and shareholder of AEROPERU INTERNATIONAL CC have signed a Letter of Intent regarding the purchase of Russian Civil aircraft, reportedly 10 SSJ100 and MS-21, as reported by Aviator Newsroom.
The Peruvian airlines plans to set up a subsidiary company which will operate the SSJ100 passenger jets, as Mr. Cesar Cataño told Russia Business Today. It shall be called Aero Peru and plans are for it to be established in 2020s.
It appears that the good experience shared from Mexico’s InterJet has had an impact on Peruvian Airlines. Mexico initially operated 22 SSJ100 from 2013 until 2016, after which it signed a deal with Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company to bring their number up to 30. The InterJet Management Board President in 2016, Miguel Aleman Velasco, told Sputnik that they were also interested in MS-21 airplanes.
In April of this year two Iranian airlines also signed deals to purchase 40 passenger jets from the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company. The two companies who have agreed to buy 20 airplanes each are Aseman Airlines and Iran Air Tours, a subsidiary of the Iranian National carrier.
The SuperJet is a 100-seat regional aircraft designed and built by Sukhoi in partnership with Italy’s Finmeccanica-Alenia Aermacch. The first flight by the plane was conducted in May 2008.
These commercial successes come after Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company has made apparent its interest to invest heavily in European customer-support facilities as it seeks to sell airplanes to airlines outside of Russia.
SCAC president Alexander Rubtsov spoke in front of FlightGlobal “”It is a lesson we have learnt, to make sure that airlines are fully satisfied with our aircraft. This includes training facilities, improved spare-part supplies and MRO facilities.”
Sukhoi’s civil aircraft division is forecasting sales of 345 Superjet 100s by 2030. Despite the sanctions placed by the US “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act”, Sukhoi is still hopeful on the sales prospects, as reported by FlightGlobal.
Rubtsov continues in front of FlightGlobal with the following “The Superjet is built for the global market, because the Russian market is too small. The market requires some level of flexibility in terms of combination of value, comfort, dispatch reliability and customer satisfaction.”
There have already been big successes this year for the Russian company and prospects for the future seem good, their expansion in South America has so far been a success, as well as that in Iran. Their aim at the international market is just beginning.
