Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) is working with Chinese partners to set up a new leasing company to boost sales of its Sukhoi Superjet 100 airliner in China. Senior officials from UAC, China’s New Century International Leasing and the Xixian New Area Administrative Committee in Shaanxi province signed a framework agreement for the new venture on May 8.

The 70- to 108-seat Superjet family competes directly with China’s long-delayed Comac ARJ21 twinjet, which finally achieved domestic certification at the end of 2014. The new leasing company, which is to be headquartered in Xixian, intends to provide Chinese carriers with operating leases and expects to have approximately 100 of the aircraft in its portfolio by the end of 2019. According to UAC president Yuri Slysar, an initial batch of five aircraft will be delivered to Xixian in 2016. He believes Sukhoi can achieve a 10- to 20-percent share of the Chinese market for this class of airliner.

“The plan is to keep [Superjet] output at 36 aircraft annually [as it did in 2014] and to sell all that we produce,” Slysar told AIN. “We have recently optimized the manufacturing facilities at Komsomolsk-upon-Amur for three aircraft per month.” He believes there is worldwide demand for approximately 100 to 120 aircraft per year in the Superjet market segment.

To support sales in China, UAC is investing in local customer support and training infrastructure. Later, the group, which is receiving support from the government-backed Russia-China Investment Fund, will establish a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Xixian. This site will also be involved in fitting Superjet cabin interiors and painting the aircraft.

Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Corporation will be a shareholder in the new aircraft. The airframer has been frustrated in its efforts to convince China’s numerous existing leasing groups to buy Superjets, and it hopes that the new venture will make this proposition more attractive. Sukhoi senior vice president Eugeny Andrachnikov told AIN that the main focus of the new sales initiative will be on China’s privately owned airlines, which are not as susceptible to Chinese government pressure to buy China-made aircraft like the ARJ21.