The international aerospace show MAKS-2013 held at the Moscow regional town of Zhukovsky has set a record volume of contracts concluded at the show, Novye Izvestia daily quoted the United Aircraft Corporation, which is the main Russian aircraft producer. The corporation has summarized the results of the aerospace show which ended on Sunday.
According to the United Aircraft Corporation, the value of contracts and agreements concluded for the delivery of 173 civilian aircrafts reached $9 billion. At the same time, the corporation, which consists of major Russian aircraft-producing enterprises, signed a maintenance contract with Russia's Defence Ministry worth $3 billion. This seemingly impressive figure was reached thanks to the fact that the closed joint stock company Sukhoi Civil Aircraft signed agreements and contracts for 52 airliners Sukhoi SuperJet-100 (SSJ-100) (at the average catalog price of around $1.9 billion); 50 more airliners were reserved for a new joint leasing company of the Russian public savings bank Sberbank and Sukhoi Civil Aircraft. The order portfolio of the Irkut company, which is also incorporated in the United Aircraft Corporation, was filled with 82 prospective long-haul airplanes MS-21; the cost of the deal is around $6.7 billion.
Other Russian participants of the air show have made much smaller achievements. For instance, Helicopters of Russia, which is included in Oboronprom, controlled by the state-run corporation Russian Technologies, signed agreements on the delivery of five helicopters Kamov Ka-62 and five helicopters Mil Mi-171A1 to Colombia. The price of one Ka-62 helicopter is around $10 million; the price of one Mi-171 helicopter is $135 million. Despite prior promises, noagreement was reached for the purchase of MiG-35 fighters by the Russian Defence Ministry.
“As for SuperJet, after examining the airliner, the Italian delegation came to the conclusion that the aircraft is heavier than they expected it to be and fuel consumption is higher than the designers stated it to be,” Novye Izvestia daily noted. Thus, Italy refused to purchase the airliner. SSJ-100 “is assembled from Western components” by 85 percent. “This means that instead of creating new jobs in Russia, no less than 25 million of which the Russian state authorities promise to create before the end of this decade, our aviation industry gives the work to Europeans and Americans,” chairman of the committee of civilian aviation of the public council of the Russian technological watchdog Oleg Smirnov told Novye Izvestia.
“Russia is still absent at the world market of commercial aviation,” Associate Professor of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration Maxim Safonov told the daily. “Only the physical preservation of the aviation industry is the main achievement of the aviation industry and the state authorities and MAKS confirmed this fact,” he added.