Offer to back aircraft production in Ukraine seems rather far fetched (231 words)

Published: 10/29/2001

Recent reports suggest that the state-owned Ukrainian railway company, Ukrzaliznitsya, has plans to buy ten new An-140s and An-74TK-300s produced at KhGAPP. The reports follow comments made by Georguy Kirpa, General Director of Ukrzaliznitsya, during a visit to KhGAPP on 16th of October, whom suggested that his company had the intention to back such programmes as the An-140 and An-74TK-300, in order “to support the stable aircraft production in Ukraine and the normal functioning of the aviation market and international air routes”. Comments by KhGAPP indicate that the producer expects Ukrzaliznitsya to provide support for at least ten aircraft, although it was reluctant to discuss the matter any further. The question of where the finance for ten An-140s at $8m a piece might come from -and the rationale behind such a move - are illustrated by the fact that the company offered to buy $5m of batteries for a Ukrainian submarine last year, suggesting that there is no particularly strong commercial logic in the company's investment strategy. Kiev newspaper, the Kiyevsky Telegraph, remains sceptical as to whether the company will buy the aircraft, poking fun at comments made by Kirpa while visiting KhGAPP, when on seeing aircraft in production remarked that “the level of drag of a cockpit could be used in the production of locomotives!”

Article ID: 2865