Russian planemaker Sukhoi will make a business-jet version of its SuperJet 100 regional airliner. The company announced the new aircraft Tuesday at the Paris Air Show and said market demand was behind the decision. It expects to be able to sell up to 100 of the $50 million business jets over the next 20 years. The list price for a passenger version of the plane is $31 million. The SuperJet bizjet will be in the same size category as Embraer’s Lineage 1000 business jet but that’s not the only arena in which the two companies will clash.
The SuperJet 100 is a 100-seat single-aisle airliner that takes dead aim at Embraer’s E-Jet series and to a certain extent the Bombardier CSeries airliners. Sukhoi hopes to have the passenger version certified in Europe by the end of the year. Meanwhile, Bombardier announced a significant deal for the CSeries at Paris. Korean Airlines will buy up to 30 of the aircraft.
