PIA - Pakistan International Airlines (PK, Islamabad International) is considering adding between six and sixteen SSJ 100/95s as a part of an investment deal offered by the Russian government to Pakistan, Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia Denis Manturov told the media during a visit to the Asian country.
"We interact directly with Pakistan International Airlines. We have agreed that in January we will continue working on it, taking into account the fact that we must work out the destination network together with our colleagues," Manturov was quoted as saying by state-run English-language Russia Today.
The Russian side has offered various options regarding the addition of the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft regional jets, ranging from purchase to dry- and even wet-lease. It is unclear who would be wet-leasing the aircraft to PIA in the last option.
The deal was a part of the largest-ever business agreement between Russia and Pakistan, wherein the Kremlin pledged billions of dollars worth of investment in the latter country.
The Russian government and Sukhoi are actively trying to find new foreign operators for the SSJ 100/95s. The last commercial operator from outside of the CIS countries, Mexico's Interjet (AIJ, Toluca), is currently in the process of selling all of its twenty-one SSJs. The only remaining operators of the regional jets outside of Russia are the Royal Thai Air Force, Comlux Aviation, and the Kazakh Air Force.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, PIA does not currently operate any regional jets. The airline's fleet includes five ATR42-500s, five ATR72-500s, thirteen A320-200s, six B777-200(ER)s, two B777-200(LR)s, and four B777-300(ER)s.
