Ruslan jumbo jet manufacturing to resume in case of sufficient order portfolio - ministry
SINGAPORE. Feb 13 (Interfax-AVN) - A decision to resume the production of Antonov An-124 "Ruslan" jumbo transport jets will be made if there are enough orders, Director of the Industry and Trade Ministry's Aircraft Industry Department Andrei Boginsky told reporters at the Singapore Air Show 2014.
"As to the restart of the production of this aircraft, everything will depend on the customer, the number of planes we expect to build. If an order compensates for the restart expenses, then we should do that. If there are not enough domestic and potential [foreign] orders, then we should certainly consider a profound modernization of the available fleet. But we will have to deal with the aging of these aircraft anyway," he said.
An intergovernmental agreement has lately been signed with Ukraine to set up a joint venture for modernizing the Antonov An-124. "Negotiations with our Ukrainian colleagues are underway," Boginsky said.
The other joint projects are generally successful, he added. "We are cooperating in the Antonov An-148 and An-158 [projects]. This is long-standing cooperation. More than 60% of components for these planes are made in Russia," Boginsky said.
