Russia to ramp up production of SuperJet 100.

MOSCOW (MarketWatch) -- Russian-Italian company SuperJet International, which this week inked a deal to sell 12 SuperJet 100s to Indonesia, plans to ramp up production to 40 planes a year by 2013 as it aims for a 20% share of the world's regional jets market, the company's chief executive said in an interview.

The 100-seater SuperJet has been presented as the great hope of Russia's civil aviation industry, which has struggled since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

The Russian aircraft industry has seen a revival over the past decade, as the government has funneled some of the country's huge oil windfall into the industry.

SuperJets are made by Sukhoi Holding Co., a unit of Russian state aviation holding company United Aircraft Corp. . SuperJet International, which markets the planes out of Italy, is a joint venture between Sukhoi and Alenia Aeronautica of Italy's Finmeccanica SpA . Alenia owns 51% and Sukhoi 49%.

Russian state carrier Aeroflot is the main buyer of the SuperJet, whose first commercial flight took place in April, with a total of 30 orders this year and next. Mexico's Interjet ordered 15 aircraft in February.

On Tuesday, Indonesian regional carrier PT Sky Aviation signed a deal to buy 12 SuperJets at the MAKS airshow outside of Moscow. "Several more" deals are to be announced over the coming days, Carlo Logli, chief executive of Superjet International, told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview.

But Sukhoi still lacks a key European certification for its new plane, a process that has caused a one-year delay in the project, Logli said. The certification should be ready by the end of the year, he said.

Sukhoi will produce 12 SuperJets this year, 25 next year and 40 in 2013, Logli said.

Logli said the SuperJet, with its new engine, is more efficient and, with a price tag of $28 million, cheaper than rivals Embraer SA and Bombardier Inc.'s mid-range aircraft.

The SuperJet 100 is primarily designed in Russia but uses Western parts, and over the next 20 years Logli said the company hopes to sell 1,000 aircraft and conquer one fifth of the global market. Six-hundred of those will be sold in Europe, the Americas and Africa, while 400 will be sold in former Soviet countries and Asia, he forecast.

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