Four aircraft now in service, with three more scheduled for completion by the end of the year (190 words)

Published: 11/2/2001

In late October, Yakutia's Polyarny Airlines and Blagoveshchensk Airlines took delivery of two An-3s at NPO Polyot in Omsk, following deliveries earlier this year of two aircraft to the Chukotka Region. The plant claims that three additional aircraft are scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, for Polyarny Airlines, the Norilsk air detachment that has reportedly ordered five aircraft, as well as an operator in the Far East. The plant is also providing a two-day pilot familiarisation to An-2 pilots, unused to the upgraded aircraft's more powerful TVD-20 turboprop power plant. According to Veniamin Chikachev, Head of Operations at Polyarny Airlines, the company has already paid for the upgrade of four An-2s into An-3s, as part of a programme of ten upgrades and expects to take an additional delivery by the end of 2001. The cost of the upgrade was not disclosed, but Chikachev did reveal that the first An-3 conversion had cost Rb15m ($0.5m) and had been paid by the Yakutia Region. In the middle of last year, Polyot disclosed that it had 19 firm orders for the upgrade and these now appear to be filtering through.

Article ID: 2880