OREANDA-NEWS. July 13, 2010. Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka visited ANTONOV Company during its official visit to Ukraine. Accompanying official delegation of Sri Lanka included members of the Parliament, representatives of the ministries and departments of the state, Embassies of Sri Lanka in Ukraine and other officials.

Dmitrii Kolesnikov, Minister of industrial policy of Ukraine and Dmytro Kiva, President – General Designer of ANTONOV told to guests about possibilities and perspectives of aviation branch of Ukraine.

Mr.Rajapaksa visited flight test base of ANTONOV Company. He familiarized himself with the broad capabilities of AN-148 regional jet of a new generation as well as AN-158, 99-seater which at present undergoes flight tests and is intended for working in different climatic conditions. These aircraft and An-140 regional turboprop AN-140 can be effectively operated by airlines of Sri Lanka and other countries of Asia. Guests also examined AN-225 “Mriya” heavy transport aircraft, AN-70 military-transport STOL aircraft and AN-74T light transport.

Amongst existing and perspective directions of the further cooperation of ANTONOV Company with Sri Lanka, Dmytro Kiva, General Designer, marked out the following one: “we support operation of 6 AN-32s light transports working in Air Forces of the country. We offer to modernize them in the future. ANTONOV offers to civil carriers of Sri Lanka the whole spectrum of passenger aircraft with capacity 27 to 99 seats which are ready to work effectively in conditions of the country.”