LONDON, July 20 (UPI) -- Russia's recently nationalized aerospace industry plans to re-enter the commercial aviation business with a 100-passenger jet.
Earlier this year, Moscow created the United Aircraft Corp. by combining the nation's six major aircraft design and manufacturing companies.
One of the entities merged into UAC is Sukhoi, which aims to develop a 100-passenger jet that will compete with Canada's Bombardier and Embraer of Brazil, The New York Times reported Thursday.
News of the new UAC venture, which includes numerous western aerospace companies as subcontractors, comes as the global regional jet market share has dropped from 17 percent of all commercial aviation orders in 2004 to an estimated 13 percent this year.
Analysts say participation in the project by Boeing Co. and Airbus SA is driven by a sense that this is a requisite for selling bigger jets to Aeroflot, another Kremlin airline.
"Both Boeing and Airbus are working in countries where they want to sell planes," Jon B. Kutler, chief executive of Admiralty Partner, an investment firm, told the Times.
Aeroflot is expected to spend $20 billion in the next few years on about 130 wide-bodied jets.
