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.