Aeroflot to receive two additional Boeing-787 Dreamliners before Sochi Olympics
MOSCOW. Oct 11 (Interfax) - OJSC Aeroflot - Russian Airlines will receive on lease two additional Boeing-787 Dreamliners before the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, member of Aeroflot's board of directors Leonid Dushatin told journalists in Moscow on Tuesday.
These two additional airplanes were not originally part of the contract with Boeing on the purchase of 22 Boeing-787 Dreamliners, so Aeroflot will now operate 24 of the airplanes, Dushatin said.
Aeroflot General Director Vitaly Savelyev has said that the company expects to take possession of its first two Boeing-787 Dreamliners in 2013.
Aeroflot and Boeing signed a memorandum on September 19, 2010 on the creation of a joint working group for working through the possibility of getting the aircraft before the Games.
The two companies signed an agreement in 2007 on the purchase of 22 Boeing-787 Dreamliners. Delivery was supposed to begin in 2014, but then Boeing said that the timetable had been pushed back and delivery would only begin in 2016.
The Dreamliner's order portfolio, whose price according to the price-list is around $160 million, includes over 860 units. Boeing currently produces an average of 2.5 Dreamliners per month, but by 2013 it expects to produce 10 per month.
The Dreamliner is the world's only large commercial airliner made mostly of carbon fiber instead of aluminum. Boeing said that the 787 model is more economical than all of its predecessors, and its carbon dioxide emissions are 20% lower.
Aeroflot's fleet currently consists of 100 airplanes, most of which are produced by Airbus. By 2015 its fleet could reach 300 airplanes.
Aeroflot is Russia's biggest air-carrier. In 2011 it plans to fly over 14.3 million passengers, versus 11.3 million in 2010.