=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2002/07/19/f= inancial1701EDT0319.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, July 19, 2002 (AP) Russia's Aeroflot chooses Airbuses to upgrade fleet, Putin and Chirac say (07-19) 14:01 PDT MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's flagship carrier Aeroflot will acquire 18 Airbus planes to upgrade its aging fleet in a $600 million deal, Russian President Vladimir Putin and French leader Jacques Chirac announced Friday. Airbus, Boeing and Russian aircraft makers had long been lobbying Aerofl= ot to modernize its fleet with their planes. In announcing the Airbus deal, Putin and Chirac did not say whether the airline could buy planes from other makers as well. Aeroflot will acquire mostly A320 mid-sized passenger planes, Putin said at a news conference with Chirac in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. But Putin also stressed that Russian carriers should support Russia's ailing aircraft makers. In the late 1990s, Aeroflot, Russia's largest airline, leased a dozen Boeings and four Airbuses tax-free in exchange for a promise to the Russian government that it would purchase Russian planes. But Aeroflot never made the purchases, saying it couldn't afford Russian-built planes at full price, and the government last year revoked those tax privileges. More than half of the approximately 1,600 aircraft owned by Russian carriers are more than 20 years old and will soon have to be retired. =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 AP