RI jets marketable in 2006

RI jets marketable in 2006

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Indonesian state-owned aircraft maker PT Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) said yesterday its first jet was expected to enter the market in 2006.

A company statement said IPTN was planning to design a twin- jet, 130-seater aircraft to be known as the N2130.

The jet would be the second Indonesian-made aircraft after the N-250 turboprop passenger plane, which had its maiden flight in August, it said in a statement at the Asian Aerospace trade show in Singapore.

"IPTN predicted that until 2015, the demand for N2130 class aircraft would not be less than 2,700 units," it said.

IPTN also said it had already received 204 foreign and domestic orders and options for the N-250.

Indonesia's state-owned Merpati Nusantara Airlines and two domestic airlines Sempati and Bouraq had ordered 100, 16 and 64 aircraft respectively, it said.

Ten of the planes were ordered by the U.S.-based Gulfstream International, 14 by European leasing firms and four by Colombia, it said. IPTN officials have said the company needed to sell 259 of the planes to break even.