About something peaceful, for a change. In the news which will never make front pages of any Western "business" media, Russian commercial carrier S7 Airlines just signed letter of intent for 75 brand new, shortened 75 seat version, of Sukhoi Superjet (in German). The deliveries for this new modification of Sukhoi passenger jets will start in 2022. For anyone who wonders why it is significant, one has to remember that 10 years ago Russian manufacturers had no competitive jets to offer for internal market, now two major niches of regional jet, such as Sukhoi, and most popular mid-range jet, such as MC-21, are being filled and they are being filled fast.
Considering the fact that Aeroflot (42 SSJs) and Azimuth also use SSJs extensively--the trend towards domestically made aircraft is now well pronounced and, considering Russia's massive market for air travel, one can fairly safely predict that in decade or two these Russian-designed and made commercial jets will begin to dominate domestic market. But that was the idea to start with. For a commercial jet, such as SSJ, for which all Western "analysts" predicted a very grim fate--it is not too shabby to perform as it is performing, with Iran also signing letter of intent for 40 SSJs just a week ago. The issue of Iranian commercial jet market is a whole other story in itself and it is driven, as it supposed to be, by geopolitical, not just business considerations. Iran must know who really is a guarantor of her safety today and that "small" consideration is what I called a geopolitical currency. After all, MC-21 is an outstanding aircraft, if you know what I mean.
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