Antonov, IFC sign contract for supply of two An-148s to Southeast Asia in 2011

18:19

Ukraine's Antonov State Enterprise and Russia's Ilyushin Finance Co. leasing company (IFC) have signed a contract for a supply of two An-148 regional jets, which will be assembled at the Antonov mass production plant, to a country in Southeast Asia in 2011.

The contract was signed on July 30, and the first An-148 is to be delivered within six months, the press service of Antonov State Enterprise reported on Monday.

The first contract for a supply of an An-148 to a foreign customer outside the Commonwealth of Independent States is the result of hard and well-coordinated work by all the partners in the program, the press service quoted the president and general designer of Antonov, Dmytro Kiva, as saying.

"While working on the An-148, we have produced an aircraft that meets all the modern safety and environmental standards. We have received a supplement to the certificate confirming the aircraft is capable to land in autoland mode under ICAO Category III standards and operate under Precision Area Navigation (P-RNAV) requirements. As a result, not only domestic but foreign airlines have shown interested in the aircraft," head of the company said.

The An-148-100 is a new generation regional passenger jet, which is capable of carrying from 68-85 passengers for a distance of from 2,000-4,400 kilometers.

The aircraft was built at the Antonov mass production plant (Kyiv), a branch of the Antonov state enterprise, jointly with OAO VASO (Voronezh, Russia). The first three An-148s, which were assembled in Voronezh, are operated by Russia's Rossiya Airlines.