Russian aircraft makers to merge within a year

Published: Feb 22, 2006
Source: www.iht.com



MOSCOW Russia's leading aircraft companies, including the makers of MiG fighter jets and Soviet-era civilian airliners, will merge into a single, state-controlled holding company within a year, allowing them to better compete with Airbus and Boeing, President Vladimir Putin has decreed.

With shared engineering and manufacturing prowess - and the promise of Kremlin patronage - the new company could again become a formidable competitor, after a decade or more of lagging behind the West, analysts said.

The merger was first announced last year. Putin signed the decree setting it in motion on Tuesday.continue..