MAPO to get government go ahead on production of the Tu-334

Published: 10/12/1999

MAPO has progressed its plans to diversify into civilian aircraft production (www.concise.org. 8th September 1999. According to a report in Vremya, on 15th October, Prime Minister Putin will sign a decree giving MAPO three months in which to present a proposal for the construction of the Tu-334 passenger jet, which has been designed in partnership with Ukraine. The decree anticipates serial production of the new aircraft by 2002, in cooperation with ANTK Tupolev and Aviant in Kiev as participants in the programme. Ilya Klebanov, Deputy Prime Minister with responsibility for Russia's aerospace industry, has apparently now endorsed MAPO's candidacy for the production of the Tu-334. In August 1999, Vladimir Nikitin, General Director of MAPO, said that the company could potentially dedicate up to 80% of its facilities to production civilian aircraft and since then has spent a good deal of time seeking such projects such as the Il-103 and Aviatika-890 light aircraft to improve MAPO's current capacity utilization MAPO of 15%. While MAPO may lack experience of building for the civilian sector, it has more funds to invest in the project than Taganrog, which was originally to have built the Tu-334. MAPO has already offered to finance 50% of the certification and production set-up costs. Most of the funding is expected to come from contracts to modernise foreign-owned MiGs, some of which will be undertaken with DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, through a JV called MAPS. The cost of developing the Tu-334 is estimated to be around $70-90m. Demand for the Tu-334 is speculated to be 1,000 until 2010. A long discussed licensing deal to produce the $14-15m aircraft in Iran is expected to be signed (www.concise.org 26th March 1999) and several countries of the former Soviet Union have also expressed interest in the plane. But the aircraft is already two years behind schedule and, even if the will to buy remains, the wherewithal is becoming increasingly hard to find. Designed to replace ageing fleets of Tu-134s, the Tu-334 can carry up to 102 passengers, or 10,000 kgs of cargo up to 2,000 km.

Article ID: 968