Dobrolet Says Signs Boeing 737 Deal 08/07/2014 | Reuters Boeing 737 Tags : Dobrolet



Russian low-cost airline Dobrolet, currently grounded by European Union sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, said it had signed a draft agreement with Boeing to buy 16 new planes.



Dobrolet, run by state-controlled Aeroflot, suspended all flights last week after its lease agreement for Boeing aircraft was cancelled under EU sanctions because it flies to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in March.



Under the new, still-provisional contract, the Boeing-737-800s would be delivered in 2017-2018, a Dobrolet spokesman said, adding the airline had paid a deposit on Monday.



"From 2017 on there will be deliveries directly from a factory in Seattle," news website Gazeta quoted Andrei Kalmykov, Dobrolet chief executive, as saying in an interview earlier on Wednesday.



Dobrolet was making "tremendous efforts" to resume flying, the spokesman added.



Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday threatened to retaliate for the grounding of Dobrolet, with business daily Vedomosti reporting that European flights to Asia over Siberia could be restricted.

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