The SCAT Airlines, Kazakhstan, and State Transport Leasing Company (STLC), Russia, planned to sign a firm contract by August 1, 2016 for the supply of 15 SSJ-100s, but so far, they failed to agree on the terms of the basic agreement, according to Gazeta.ru.

According to STLC, at present, the parties are in the stage of terms approval. “Before the signing of the main contract, we are not ready to disclose details that could affect the process of signing”, the STLC stressed.

In May 2016, this plane was supposed to appear in Kazakhstan, but SCAT Airlines, which stated its desire to lease 15 new SSJ-100s a year ago, is not in a hurry to sign the main contract. Moreover, according to sources, the air carrier refused from two planes, which were offered to the Air Company in the spring.

The preliminary agreement between the STLC and SCAT to lease 15 SSJ-100s was signed on August 25, 2015 at the MAKS International Aviation and Space Salon. In accordance with the agreements, one planned that the lease of each aircraft will last 144 months since the date of transfer. The list of other conditions of the transaction including the date, the place of transmission of each aircraft, rent, transfer conditions, etc. should have been spelled out in the Basic Agreement. The parties were going to sign it no later than August 1, 2016, but it was not signed.

The Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC), Russia, recalled that the memorandum was signed between the STLC and SCAT. “The STLC is our customer, and all orders from the leasing company are in power”, the SCAC noted, adding that SCAT showed its interest in acquiring SSJ-100s, “but the SCAC and SCAT have no any signed contracts at the moment”.

In February 2016 it was reported that SCAT had started training six of its experts to be able to provide maintenance of SSJ-100 aircraft.