Big deal: 20 Sukhoi Superjets to fly in Mexico

Mexico's Interjet airline has taken up an option to buy 20 Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ-100) planes at the Farnborough air show.

Superjet International has signed a contract worth $700 million with Interjet to supply it with 20 SSJ-100s said Interjet Chairman Miguel Alemаn Velasco at a press conference at Farnborough. He said the plane's quality and price were the key factors for the purchase.nterjet originally planned to buy 15 Super jets but later decided to sign up for an additional five.Velasco also said that the decision to purchase additional Sukhoi planes was not affected by the May crash of a Superjet in Indonesia.The plane crashed into a mountain during its first demonstration flight from Jakarta, killing all 45 people on board.The latest investigation report show the crash could have been caused by the carelessness of a ground controller.However Armenia’s Armavia has decided against buying a second plane, saying it will purchase Airbus and Boeing instead.Armavia took delivery of the first Superjet 100 in April last year  and began commercial flights immediately. It was supposed to buy a second at the end of the year.“Armenia is not going to buy it,” the Armavia’s spokeswoman Nana Avetisova said without giving a reason. However, some think it could be the airline has financial problems.China Aircraft leasing also said it intends to buy 36 A320 planes, among them 8 of the larger A321 jets with the total price tag of $3 billion,  Airbus officials said at the Farnborough Air show.The Sukhoi Superjet is also operated by Russia’s Aeroflot. The airline says it is only using four of its eight brand new Superjets because of problems with the plane’s air-conditioning system.Sukhoi has received over 200 firm orders for Superjet 100 airliners. At the 16th International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg in June Russia’s Transaero signed a $212 million deal with Sukhoi for 6 Superjets-100. The Superjet 100 is a short-medium haul passenger aircraft capable of carrying up to 100 passengers for up to 4,500 kilometers. It is built as a joint venture between Sukhoi, and the US and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.In 2012 Sukhoi plans to supply a total of 20 SSJ planes to countries like Indonesia, Laos and Mexico and to Russia’s Aeroflot and Yakutsk airlines.