Aeroflot orders Boeing 787

Russian carrier Aeroflot announced today that it will be ordering 22 Boeing 787 aircraft - an order valued at about 3 billion dollars. Aeroflot is the second Russian airline to order the 787 - S7 was first. The airplanes, which are scheduled to be delivered between 2014 and 2016, will complement the 22 Airbus A350 aircraft that Aeroflot bought in March. There have been reports that Aeroflot preferred the 787 over the A350 but ended up getting both because state-owned Vneshtorgbank bought 5% of Airbus parent EADS last year.

Boeing emphasized the benefits to Russia that the deal would provide: key components for the 787 were designed at Boeing's Moscow office, where the company employs about 300 engineers, and that Russian titanium would be used in the building of the airplane. Boeing also agreed to help Russian manufacturer Sukhoi in the latter's production of the Sukhoi Superjet-100 (SSJ), also called the Russian Regional Jet (RRJ).