"As the serial production of the Superjet-100 is to start, we expect 60 aircraft to be supplied to customers in 2010 and 70 in 2012," the program for the development of the aircraft industry until 2012 said.
The Superjet-100 project is a family of medium-haul passenger aircraft developed by a leading Russian manufacturer, Sukhoi, in cooperation with U.S. and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.
Sukhoi said earlier there were at least 100 firm orders for the aircraft, which are due to complete certification flights in the second half of 2009.
Sukhoi, which is part of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), plans to manufacture at least 700 Superjet 100s, and intends to sell 35% of them to North America, 25% to Europe, 10% to Latin America, and 7% to Russia and China.
The UAC also plans to sell a total of 20 Tu-204 medium-haul passenger airliners and their modified Tu-214 versions, and another 33 aircraft in 2012 under the program, which is designed to encourage civilian aircraft production.
The UAC was established in November 2006 to help overcome a crisis in Russia's aircraft industry, and incorporates commercial and military aircraft makers including Ilyushin, Tupolev, Sukhoi, Antonov and Mikoyan, as well as companies involved in distribution, including Aviaexport.
