Assembling of An-178 transport aircraft in Azerbaijan may begin within 2-3 years. "Roughly speaking, assembling of the aircraft will begin in Azerbaijan in 2018-2019," Ukraine’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan Oleksandr Mischenko said, the Interfax Azerbaijan news agency reports.
He noted that Ukraine and Azerbaijan recently signed a contract for production of 10 An-178 aircraft.
"For our part, we are preparing two aircraft for sale. The remaining eight will be assembled in Azerbaijan. The aircraft’s assembling cycle should begin in Azerbaijan in the next 3-4 years," the diplomat added. According to him, Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) is already building a module and the premises for assembling the aircraft.
The Antonov state aircraft manufacturing enterprise and Silk Way Airlines (Azerbaijan) concluded a contract for assembling in Ukraine and supply of 10 An-178 transport aircraft to the airline in May 2015. Under the terms of the contract, the first two aircraft are expected to be delivered by the end of 2018 and the remaining eight by agreement between the two sides.
The An-178 transport aircraft, which is designed to replace the An-12 aircraft, premiered at the Le Bourget air show in Paris in 2015. It was also displayed at the Dubai Air Show (UAE) in 2015. It made a successful debut in the exhibition flight program of the ILA Berlin international air show (Germany) in June 2016.
