Published on Tuesday, August 7, 2007
HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): Russia has delivered the first of three Tupolev
medium-haul jet planes to Cuba, expanding one of its main export markets
for commercial aircraft, the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma
reported on Monday.
The cargo version of the TU-204 arrived in Havana on Sunday and two
passenger jets will be delivered before the end of the year as Cuba
upgrades its aging Soviet-era fleet, the paper said.
Last year, Cuba received three Ilyushin IL-96-300s long-haul passenger
jets used on routes to Europe and Latin America by Cuban carrier Cubana
de Aviacion.
A Russian diplomat said the sales to Cuba are one of the most important
export contracts for Russia's commercial aircraft industry since the
collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The deal was financed by Ilyushin Finance Co.
Cuba last year agreed to buy $100 million a year in civilian aircraft
from Russia over the next seven years, including short-haul regional
Antonov AN-148 planes.
Under US sanctions dating from shortly after Fidel Castro's 1959
revolution, Cuba's communist government is barred from purchasing Boeing
aircraft. It is also barred from buying European Airbus planes because
more than 10 percent of their components are US made.
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