Country Wants No. 3 Spot In Commercial Airline
Market
Moscow-based OAO United
Aircraft Corp. is actively seeking to take part in work on an
Airbus A320 successor, as it competes with China for the
number-three spot in the commercial airline market.
United Aircraft's Chief Executive Officer, Alexey Fyodorov, met
with Airbus CEO-designate Tom Enders Wednesday to talk about doing
some assembly work on the new aircraft. As ANN reported, the
state-controlled company is Russian President Vladimir Putin's
attempt to bring back Soviet-era glory to the country's aerospace
industry.
Working with the current number one plane maker "is one of the
main goals we have," Fyodorov told Bloomberg News. "If it's a
mutual project, we have to have a final assembly in Russia."
The cooperation talks yielded "nothing spectacular," though the
companies are "making progress," Enders said. "The degree of mutual
knowledge between Russian industry and us, the degree of common
understanding of processes and tools and the degree of trust
between the management on both sides, is considerably growing in
recent years."
Russia is trying to make up for China's June win of an agreement
to build a production line for the A320. Fyodorov says Russia can
ultimately take the third spot by building 4,500 military and
civilian aircraft by 2025.
"If the Russians can offer good quality and reliability, then it
would make sense," said Zafar Khan, a London-based analyst at
Societe Generale.
"China does have a better chance due to the size of their
market, and they have at least recognized the need to privatize
their industry," said Richard Aboulafia of Teal Group, a Fairfax,
VA-based consulting company.
Fyodorov and Enders reportedly talked about projects including
conversion of A320s into cargo aircraft in Russia as well as the
company's participation in the long-range A350.
Enders said another project is a new short-range aircraft and
Russia having an assembly line "is not at all impossible,"
Bloomberg reported.
He said he can see "big opportunities" for partnerships in
Russia and China. But, "I don't see a race here," he said. "Russia
is not just a market for us; it's full of very skilled labor."
Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) will
require 1,060 new airplanes worth about $70 billion over the next
20 years, according to Boeing's updated annual forecast for the
commercial airplane market.
This year marks the first year Boeing has published its forecast
for the Russia/CIS region as part of the Current Market
Outlook.
India and China "have a lot of money and they learn really
fast," but Russia "for many years did not invest in commercial
manufacturing," said Sergei Kravchenko, chief executive officer of
Boeing Russia.
"Russia deserves to be an independent player in the world of
aviation," he added. "Integration is necessary and I think the best
for Russia is to cooperate with all big players."
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