DTN News: Russia To Market Tu-204 Airliner Through Iran

DTN News: Russia To Market Tu-204 Airliner Through Iran

*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media

(NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW, Russia - August 1, 2009: A Russian official says selling Tupolev passenger planes to Tehran is an important step to introduce the product to other countries for further export.

The Tupolev Tu-204 is a twin-engined medium range Russian airliner capable of carrying 212 passengers. First introduced in 1989, it is considered to be broadly equivalent to the Boeing 757. It was developed for Aeroflot as a replacement for the medium range Tupolev Tu-154 trijet.

Sergei Galperin, director of the civil aviation production programs of the United Aircraft Corporation of Russia told reporters on Friday that signing the contract to sell Iran five Tupolev-204 aircrafts is an important step in marketing the plane in other countries, IRNA reported. Galperin said the contract was finalized and that the step would introduce the Tupelov aircrafts to international consumers.

The Russian official asserted that further talks were to be held between representatives from the two countries over further legalizing the production of the planes inside Iran. He added that (if the contract is singed) much of the parts of the plane would be assembled in Iran.

The news comes as earlier, on July 24, seventeen people were killed and 30 others injured in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad when a Russian built Ilyushin Il-62 owned by Kazakhstan and leased by Iran's Aria Aviation Company, slid off the runway and hit a wall as it tried to make an emergency landing.

In less than 10 days before, on July 15, another Russian-made Tupolev carrying 153 passengers and 15 crewmembers nosedived into a field outside the village of Jannat Abad near Iran's Qazvin province.

All 168 people that were on board were killed. After being prevented from buying the latest Boeing or Airbus aircrafts due to US sanctions, Iran has started a fleet modernization program based on Russian technology, with outstanding orders for 35 Tupolev Tu-204 medium-range airliners and up to 6 examples of the wide-body Ilyushin Il-96 long-range airliner.

Earlier, leasing company Ilyushin Finance Corporation signed a pre-contract agreement to sell five Tu-204 aircrafts to Iran Air Tour, a subdivision of Iran Air, for a total cost of $180 million.