Russia's Sukhoi to unveil 30 Superjet orders
LONDON (Reuters) - Russia's Sukhoi will announce 30 orders for its Superjet 100 regional aircraft at the Farnborough air show, a spokeswoman said on Saturday.
The orders will be unveiled at a news conference on Tuesday, she said.
Sukhoi's Superjet 100 is designed to seat 78-98 passengers and is the fruit of almost a decade of efforts by Russia's largest warplane maker to branch out into commercial passenger jet production targeted at Western airlines.
Sukhoi pre-sold 73 of the aircraft mainly to Russian airlines, but has embarked on an export campaign together with Italian partner Alenia Aeronautica (SIFI.MI).
That puts Sukhoi in direct competition with Brazil's Embraer (EMBR3.SA)(ERJ.N) and Bombardier (BBDb.TO) of Canada, which dominate the 70-100 seat aircraft market.
Ukraine's Antonov has a small market share and China and Japan have joined the race to develop rival models.
Russian airline Aeroflot (AFLT.MM) said this month it had been informed Sukhoi would delay the first deliveries of the jet by a year to third-quarter 2009.
Aeroflot, Russia's flagship airline, had expected delivery of 30 of the planes this year.
The Superjet's first flight, initially planned for 2007, was delayed by several months, and the aircraft took off for the first time in May.
Russia unveiled its first all-new airliner since the fall of the Soviet Union last year, hoping to curb dependence on oil exports and restore pride in its teetering aviation industry.
Moscow wants to revive Russian aviation, shattered by the collapse of the Soviet Union, as a way of touting the country's growing industrial and technical might.
Russia aims to secure at least 10 percent of the world airliner market with new passenger jets and to take third place among aircraft-producing countries by 2015-2018.
The Superjet will replace Russia's fast ageing Soviet-made fleet of Tupolev Tu-134 and Yakovlev Yak-42 planes on domestic routes with a longer range of 4,550 km (2800 miles).
Besides Alenia, a unit of Italy Finmeccanica, it is being built with investment from France's Thales (TCFP.PA) and Safran (SAF.PA).
(Reporting by Tim Hepher, editing by Mike Peacock)
