YAKUTSK, January 23. /ITAR-TASS/. High-volume output of Canadian Bombardier-Q400 aircraft in Russia will roll out in 2015 as duties push up the price of imported planes, manager director for aviation projects at Russia's Rostec corporation Aleksey Fyodorov told a conference reviewing the plane's future in Russia.
First stage of production at a plant in the Volga city Ulyanovsk’s special economic zone would start this August, he said, adding that the Canadian manufacturer’s proxies would supervise quality and certify aircraft in accordance with Canadian technical specifications. Planned manufacturing capacity is for up to 24 aircraft a year.
The head of Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviation, Alexander Neradko, said the plant should be accompanied by a training center for flight personnel.
Catalogue price was about 900 million roubles (about $27.3 billion) for the plane but 30 percent import duty increased this for Russian air carriers, he said. Thanks to a subsidisation program for airlines of about 3 billion roubles (some $91 million) annually, however, Russian aircraft fleets were now expanding, Neradko added.
·ombardier director for business development in Russia, the CIS and Eastern Europe Mark Gilbert said the aircraft had recently been tested against low temperatures, showing endurance at minus 54 degrees Celcius. The Siberian republic of Yakutia had pioneered use of this aircraft in Russia, he added.
Yakutia air carriers plan to buy seven Bombardier-Q400. The line's first deputy chief executive, Pavel Udod, said Bombardiers were currently making only regional flights but “will soon totally replace An-24 in domestic airlines”. Ticket prices would fall through federal budget subsidies, he added.