Maksim covers aerospace developments in Central Asia for Aviation Week. He has worked for Russia's Air Transport Observer magazine and was in charge of several ATO sister aerospace publications after working for the Moscow-based CAST defense think tank.
Maksim has a degree in international relations from MGIMO University, Moscow.
The first group of Kazakh pilots and technicians has already arrived at the aircraft’s assembly facility in Irkutsk, Russia, for one-month type conversion ground training.
According to the preliminary data provided by Russia’s Transport Clearing House, local airlines carried 93 million passengers last year, a 10% increase over 2013.
Still, UAC has more experience in major composite structures than the Chinese industry has, although Avic, Comac’s airframe supplier, owns Austrian composites-specialist FACC.
