A Q300 jet
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Base Element to Change Planes
// Bombardier Q300 Assembly Plant May Move to Samara
Yesterday Russian Trade and Economic Development Minister German Gref announced that an agreement had been reached at the World Economic Forum in Davos about the possible opening of the first production plant in Russia for a foreign-designed aircraft. According to information obtained by Kommersant, the negotiations concerned the transfer of the production line for the 53-seater turboprop Bombardier Q300 from Downsview, Canada, to Oleg Deripaska's Base Element Aviakor facility in Samara. Experts in the field say that if the project goes ahead, it will mean the end of the joint Ukrainian-Russian An-140 production program, an airplane that has specifications very close to those of the Q300. Aviakor, however, is said to want to keep the An-140 in production, possibly by tailoring it for uses other than as a commercial passenger plane.
At a session of the military-industrial commission yesterday, Trade and Economic Development Minister German Gref announced that he had reached an agreement in Davos with "a foreign company" regarding the possible purchase by Russia of the design for a passenger airplane and the factory to produce it. "We agreed with the president of a large company that they would sell the design of a 53-seat airplane together with the factory, technology, and documentation," the news agency Interfax quoted Mr. Gref as saying. "They are ready to sell everything, and we can begin production in Russia." The minister declined to name the other party in the agreement. According to information obtained by Kommersant, however, Mr. Gref recounted a meeting between the president of Canada-based Bombardier, Inc., Laurent Beaudoin, and Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, the head of the company Base Element. The outcome of the meeting has not been reported. However, a source familiar with Mr. Deripaska's plans said that Base Element has been in talks with Bombardier concerning the possibility of moving the production facility for the Q300 turboprop local-range airplane to Samara. The airplane, twenty of which rolled off the assembly line last year, is currently being produced by Bombardier's factory in Downsview, Ontario.
Base Element, Aviakor, and Bombardier refused to comment officially, but it is known that Mr. Deripaska's holding company has long been searching for a partner for its airplane factory, which does not participate in the United Aircraft Building Corporation, a joint venture between Russian government and private interests. In 2006, Aviakor produced only three planes (two Tu-154 and one An-140) and repaired six more. In August 2002, Base Element held negotiations with the German aviation firm Fairchild Dornier concerning the production of the local-range FD 728 jet, which was competing with the Russian Tu-334, but the negotiations fell through. In 2005, Aviakor considered the possibility of moving the production of the Brazilian company Embraer's regional ERJ 145 plane to Russia, and at the end of that same year a delegation from Bombardier made its first visit to Samara. The factory's general director, Sergei Licharev, said then that Bombardier could open a service center at Aviakor and then organize an assembly plant for the Canadian company's planes. At the beginning of January 2007, Sergei Yermolaev, the former head of Airbus in Russia, became the head of Bombardier's Russian representation. Officially, he was invited to work "on Bombardier's new large projects in Russia."
The transfer of the production of the Q300 could be realized within the next year and a half, though the projected production volume is still unknown. Boris Rybak, the general director of the consulting company Infomost, believes that the volume of investment could approach $400 million, of which $300 million will be earmarked for bringing equipment, the production certificate, and the product to Russia, while the remaining $100 would go for creating a technical support team for the airliner.
If the project succeeds, it will be the first production and assembly plant for foreign airplanes in Russia, which would have at least three major consequences for the market. "Clearly, the Q300 is much more widely distributed than the An-140. The transfer of its production facilities to Samara could mean that Russia will be able to claim the position of number three in the world market for turboprop planes," said Aviaport analyst Oleg Panteleev. "Aviakor has the resources to assemble both the An-140 and the Q300, but from a business point of view the production of two identical models is nonsense. That means that the arrival of Bombardier will mean the end of the An-140," he claimed. According to Mr. Pantaleev, a second consequence is that currently around $6-7 million of the price of the An-140 goes into government coffers as taxes and payment for deliveries of parts, a number that the Q300 production will be unlikely to sustain.
"It will be a killing blow to the advance of the European ATR turboprop plan project," said Mr. Rybak, pointing out the third major consequence of Bombardier's possible arrival in Russia. Meanwhile, however, experts predict that numerous problems will arise before the deal between Base Element and Bombardier is sealed. "The biggest question is how fast the market for regional passenger planes will grow in Russia," said Mr. Rybak, noting that the move could be premature. The global market for economical turboprop planes is currently experiencing an upward trend, but only because of the high price of jet fuel.
Bombardier Dash Q300
A 56-seat short-range passenger plant built by the Canadian company Bombardier. The plane went into production in 1986 and made its first flight in 1987. The Q300 model is part of the Dash 8 series, which includes the 37-seat Q100, the 29-seat Q200, and the 78-seat Q400.
Its maximum takeoff weight is 19.5 tons, and it has a cruising altitude of 528 kmph. The Q300 has a range of approximately 1,500 km (with modification, it can reach 2,000 km) and is powered by two Pratt and Whitney PW123B turbojet engines. Its wingspan is 27.5 m and its length is 25.7 m.
To date, the company has taken approximately 220 orders for the Q300 (overall, 740 planes have been ordered from the Dash 8 series). One Q300 jet costs around $17 million.
Sergey Ryzhkin
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 30, 2007
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