Russia’s Polet gets in queue for An-70

Russian airline Polet said yesterday that it was interested in becoming one of the first commercial customers for the An-70, Polet General Director Anatoliy Karpov told Interfax. Ukraine and Russia just signed an agreement last week to revive work on the production of the An-70 during the MAKS-2009 airshow in Russia. The An-70 was designed as a military transport aircraft. The An-70 is planned to utilize Motor Sich’s (MSICH) D-27 engines. Yegor Samusenko: Each An-70 has four D-27 engines produced in cooperation with Motor Sich. The recent positive news flow from Russia on different Antonov airplanes has two strategic implications for Motor Sich. First, the company could increase its production of engines, which would diversify its product portfolio, currently concentrated on helicopter engines. Second, Russian-Ukrainian cooperation on Antonov planes could tighten intergovernmental relations in the aviation industry, which would reduce the risk of Motor Sich loosing Russia as its main customer of helicopter engines.