Russia's Sukhoi Civil Aircraft company's Superjet 100 airliner will be used for the country's presidential needs as soon as it is rolls of the factory, a Kremlin official said.
Vladimir Kozhin, head of the presidential property management administration, said that, the Kremlin has "big plans" for Superjet 100.
The Superjet-100 project is a family of medium-haul passenger aircraft developed by Sukhoi in cooperation with U.S. and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.
"As soon as the jet rolls off the production line we are definitely ready to purchase it for presidential needs," Kozhin said.
Sukhoi, part of Russia's 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.
Currently, the company has at least 122 firm orders for Superjet 100 airliners. The first aircraft are expected to be delivered to Armenia's national airline Armavia and Russia's flagship air carrier Aeroflot.
MOSCOW, May 18 (RIA Novosti)
