Published: 5/22/1998

News coming from Russia's Antonov design bureau of the Ukraine and Aviacor production factory indicates that the An-140 project is proceeding steadily. Antonov's own pilot factory has already built three airframes, including two flyable prototypes (the third is for static tests). At the end of last year Antonov signed a contract with the Khesa company for licence-production of the An-140 in Iran. According to Oleg Bogdanov, deputy general designer with Antonov, the use of Iranian-built aircraft will be strictly limited to the civil sphere. Press reports indicate that Iranian specialists have already arrived in Kiev and Zaporozhie for training. The first Iranian An-140 is planned to be assembled during 1999. According to Antonov, Iran's need for the An-140-class aircraft is estimated at 50-70 airframes. Meanwhile, flight tests continue on the first and second prototypes, which had their maiden flights in September and December 1997. According to Bogdanov, the An-140 will obtain its airworthiness certificate next year. Antonov predicts a large market for the An-140, at least 650 units just for the CIS countries. Annual rate of production is said to be 60-70 aircraft. The An-140 is marketed as the best replacement for over 3,300 An-24/26/32 family turboprops currently in service. The An-140 project is considered to be paramount for the Samara-based Aviacor factory. After the company changed its leadership in 1994, the new team, headed by Lev Khasis, ordered to conduct a thorough market study to find out what aircraft would be needed in the next 10-15 years. The marketing studies took over a year. It was found that large orders could be expected for relatively inexpensive regional turboprops with 50-60 seats and for regional jets with 110-120 seats. As a result of these marketing studies, Lev Khasis' team chose the Antonov An-140 turboprop commuter as the basic model for the factory in the future. This new "no-frills" design is aimed at replacing the ageing fleet of An-24s and Yak-40s. Eventually, the An-140 should become the most popular regional aircraft in Russia. In order to ensure the An-140 is a success, Aviacor contracted Atlas Project Management to help in production and marketing of this aircraft (see IN1097.4, issue 52). In an exclusive interview with ConCISe, Leonid Komm, senior vice-president for economics and finance at Aviacor, said, "We found that there are quite a few routes in Russia, sometimes as long as 1,500 and 2000km, with rather limited passenger flows. You cannot put a big jet on these routes because it will not bring any profit. What is needed for these routes is a relatively small propeller-driven aircraft. Our analysis showed the market for such an aircraft over the next 10-15 years would be 500-600 units at least. It is a big market matching the capacity of our factory." Komm says that the An-140 is beyond the competition, being far less expensive than any of the foreign turboprop commuters. The Ilyushin Il-114 is not a strong competitor too, because of it being poorly suited to operations from unpaved airfields due to its low-mounted engines. The price of a An-140 will be $7-8m depending on specification, according to Leonid Komm. Although demand for the type is high, he anticipates that direct sales will be limited in the first few years due to a lack of cash in CIS operators' pockets. To overcome this problem, Aviacor is to make the aircraft available under lease agreements. Komm thus commented on it, "Operational expenses of the newly-built An-140 with lease payments included will be considerably lower than that for the An-24. In other words, replacing an old An-24 with a brand-new An-140 will result in an airline generating more profit. So there will be good reason for airlines to replace their old An-24s with new An-140s." Although the primary engine for the An-140 is planned to be the Motor-SICh TV3-117, Aviacor is also considering installation of the Klimov TV7-117 and Pratt & Whitney PW100-series engines. Komm says this gives a wider choice for the customers, enabling them to tailor the aircraft to the specifics of their routes. He added, "we ought to become more customer-friendly. The customer should dictate what interior he wants, what engine, what seats, what navigation and so on." The first An-140 built in Samara will fly in the first half of the next year, but Aviacor has already signed "numerous letters of intent" for the type, calling for as many as 300 airframes. Komm comments, "We do not expect all these letters to turn into firm orders, but we are sure that as soon as the aircraft is certificated and made available on the market, it will be immediately purchased or taken on lease by CIS operators." Explaining this, Komm told ConCISe that the An-24 fleet is getting older, needing urgent replacment. By 2003-2004 there will be no An-24s in service due to their expiring lifetimes assigned by the developer. Although the developer can prolong the initial lifetime, it will hardly be the case with the An-24 due to the recent alarming incident rate on this type in the last few years. (IN598.5) (VK)

Article ID: 160