Russia’s largest airline Aeroflot is considering to buy as many as 30 new aircraft to be made by regional aircraft manufacturers, the company’s CEO said during a meeting on Monday.
Aeroflot is the flag carrier and largest airline in Russia, flying millions of people a year to dozens of destinations around the world. It currently has a fleet of 107 aircraft, most of which are Airbus A320-family aircraft.
But Aeroflot has an interest in buying more Russian-made aircraft, rather than aircraft made in the United States. The airline received its first Russian-made Sukhoi SuperJet-100 earlier this year and has another 29 SSJ-100 regional jets on order.
Aeroflot CEO Vitaly Savelyev said on Monday that Aeroflot is ready to sign a contract for 10 more SSJ-100 aircraft, bringing the total number of SSJ-100 planes to 40. The airline previously said it intends to acquire a total of 126 modern Russian-built aircraft of various types through 2020.
In addition, Aeroflot is considering to sign a contract with Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer Antonov for 20 more An-148 planes. These would be delivered to Aeroflot subsidiary GTK Rossiya, which Savelyev said has proved to be ‘quite effective.’
