Cuba to buy three Russian passenger airliners

Cuba to buy three Russian passenger airliners

10/02/2006 20:44

ULYANOVSK, February 10 (RIA Novosti, Lyubov Chilikova) - A delegation
from Cuba visited a Russian airplane manufacturing plant Friday in
Ulyanovsk, about 550 miles east of Moscow, and expressed interest in
purchasing three Russian passenger airliners.

Cuban Ambassador to Russia Jorge Marti Martinez, who headed the
delegation, expressed his colleagues' conclusion: "It [the plane] is
unique, reliable and competitive in price."

The delegation said it wanted to buy three of the Tu-204-100s from the
Aviastar-SP plant in Ulyanovsk for Cubana Air Lines.

Ambassador Martinez said Cuban airline companies were already employing
about 20 Russian airliners, and that the contract to buy three more
planes would be signed soon, after specialists worked out the details of
the agreement.

Martinez also said the quality of education offered by the Ulyanovsk
Institute of Civil Aviation was very high, adding that more than 400
Cuban pilots, engineers and navigators had completed studies there last
year.

He said if a contract were signed with Aviastar-SP, Cuba would send more
students to the Ulyanovsk institute.

The Cuban delegation spent two days in Ulyanovsk.

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