Hugo Jose Garcia Hernandez visited the VASO
The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Venezuela in the Russian Federation Hugo Jose Garcia Hernandez visited the Voronezh Joint Stock Aviation Construction Association (VASO), which plans to manufacture a consignment of IL-96-300 long-haul liners for Venezuela, with delivery set for 2010.
The ambassador inspected the VASO production lines, new equipment, brought into the plant under a large-scale modernisation programme, and ready-made aviation equipment, in particular an IL-96 with VIP cabin. The official supplier, the Ilyushin Finance Company (IFC), is preparing this comfortable passenger liner for transfer to the flight division of the Russian Federation Presidential Administration. Furthermore, the guest from Venezuela was shown the preparations being made for transferring IL-96-400T cargo liners to the Voronezh airline Poliot. The ambassador was acquainted with the features of serial production of new Russian-Ukrainian An-148 regional aircraft.
The memorandum on the supply of IL-96-300 passenger aircraft to Venezuela was signed in this country on 27 November 2008, between the Russian leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co and the Venezuelan import-export company VEXIMCA C.A., in the presence of the presidents of Russia and Venezuela. This document marked the start of the first transaction on the supply of Russian-made civilian aircraft to the Bolivar Republic of Venezuela. The Latin-America region is currently operating three IL-96-300 aircraft, delivered to Cuba by IFC.
Ilyushin Finance Co is Russia’s largest aviation leasing company, supplying Russian-made IL-96, Tu-204 and An-148 aircraft. The principal customers of this equipment, in addition to Russian airlines, are the air carriers of Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and Syria.