Kazakhstan's Bek Air to take Superjets

Kazakhstani carrier Bek Air has agreed to take delivery of seven Sukhoi Superjet 100s, all of which will be configured in an all-economy layout, flightglobal.com reports.

Sukhoi's civil aircraft division disclosed the pact during the Farnborough air show.

It says that Bek Air will take delivery of three Superjets in 2015 and the other four in 2016. The aircraft supplied will be the long-range version, and they will be fitted with 103 seats.

Superjet 100s are all equipped with PowerJet SaM146 engines.

Sukhoi has yet to clarify whether the agreement involves new aircraft or the transfer of jets originally delivered to previous customers.

"This [signature] opens new prospects on the aviation operations market for [Superjet 100s] within the Eurasian Economic Union," says the airframer.

Bek Air operates Fokker 100 aircraft on services within Kazakhstan, including connections to Almaty,Astana, Aktau and Uralsk. Sukhoi says the carrier intends to expand its route network into Russia and the Middle East.