21 June 2013
Austria’s Diamond Aircraft and Ural Works of Civil Aviation (UWCA), a Rostec subsidiary, are to partner to develop and produce a low-cost transport aircraft for the Russian market to enter service in 2016. The companies aim to develop a low-cost, 19-seat, diesel-powered, composite utility aircraft designed to service communities in vast reaches of the country that have no road or rail links.
The signing took place at the Le Bourget Paris Air Show. The announcement stated, ‘Effective and low-cost LUA will make domestic operations more profitable and thus will attract small air carriers without own fleet to the market.’
CEO of Rostec Sergey Chemezov said, “Today local aviation in Russia undergoes a severe crisis as there are no state-of-the-art quality light aeroplanes of affordable prices. An-2 and L-410 currently in service have low fuel efficiency and high operating costs. Creating a principally new aircraft will fulfil this niche and allow to replace the obsolete fleet. Rostec plans to establish leasing programmes of its own in order to boost the exploitation of the new aircraft in the future.”


Christian Dries, the president of Diamond Aircraft said, “We anticipate Russia is a prospective market as it has considerable territories giving it great potential in domestic services development. It is generally recognised that the sector can be quite profitable once it is highly developed. For example, latest researches showed that the USA with its territories comparable with the Russia’s has up to 70 % of all the domestic operations in the world.”


<a href=’http://www.diamond-air.at’ target=’_blank’>www.diamond-air.at</a>
