Sukhoi targets Chinese and Brazilian markets
The head of Russian aircraft maker Sukhoi says England’s Farnborough International Airshow this week will see new orders for both its civilian and military planes. In an interview with Business Today, Mikhail Pogosyan explained why he wasn’t banking on ne
He has also assured the public there won’t be further delays to the Superjet-100 project.
Mikhail Pogosyan:We acknowledge that the certification has been delayed a little bit longer than half a year. And that’s just an objective difficulty connected with debugging so many systems, most of which are integrated from international manufacturers. It could also depend on our internal problems. But if we compare our programme with any other, we are developing almost in line with our announced deadlines. And the small delays are a problem of the complicated multinational programs we work with.
RT: Do you expect new clients for your Su-35 fighter plane or will they come from your traditional client base?
MP: Actually the global military aircraft market is well-defined. The American market accounts for 50% of the global market and I don’t think that we have serious prospects of increasing our share of the American market. The NATO market depends on American and partly on European imports. But on the other markets we have a very stable share and it’s difficult to speak about any serious increase.
RT: How confident are you of winning the Brazilian military tender for 120 fighter jets?
MP: We have a strong position in Brazil because we won a tender with our SU-35 jet five years ago. Unfortunately we haven’t signed the contract. But that helped us to gain prominence in Brazil and the successful use of our jets now in Venezuela also helps to strengthen our position in South America.
RT: You were in China in May. Do you expect new deals on the Superjet from there?
MP: I think the Chinese market is broad enough to admit our product which is different to the AJ25. I do believe we have a chance to promote our jets on the Chinese market. Of course Chinese air companies will support national jets. But where our jets have better characteristics or are more competitive, we would have a good chance.
