South African entrepreneur Andrea Stein in an interview with Aerlegraph’s publication announced the intention to create a new airline in the country. Her fleet will consist of ten Russian sukhoi SuperJet 100 aircraft.
At the same time, five liners are future SkyLink Airways going to buy immediately, and five more – rent. According to Stein, he is currently negotiating with the leader of the “regional aircraft” Pavel Panyukov and the director of “regional lines” on sales of Tatyana Baynetova.
Businessman expects meeting with the manufacturer of SSJ-100 will take place in front of the Max airlock, scheduled for July. In the current year, he intends to open a representative office in Moscow.
Stein stressed that he thinks the Russian aircraft perfect for Africa. He is economical, new technologies have been applied in it, and the accuracy of the aircraft manufacturers is high. In the future, the businessman expects to buy MS-21 aircraft.
In Irkuta (the head company “Regional aircraft”) confirmed the fact of negotiations, but did not reveal the details. South Africa in the company called a promising region for the supply of Russian civilian appliances.
The main problem of aircraft SSJ-100 foreign operators called the lack of spare parts, due to which the fleet was idle. On such grounds from the liners refused to Belgian Brussels Airlines and tried to get rid of Mexican interjet.
In January, it became known that “Irkut” will buy the last “European” Sukhoi Superjet 100 from Irish CityJet. The airline does not use these aircraft from 2019 due to service problems. They are supposed to be finalized and transferred to the lease to some Russian carrier.
At the end of last year, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Commission, Denis Manturov, noted that SSJ-100 was unclaimed abroad due to mistakes in promotion. According to him, at first, it was necessary to create service centers, and then lead aggressive sales.