Airbus plans to launch a demonstrator for an A320-based freighter

model in cooperation with Russian companies UAC and Irkut in 2011. The project financing and the new structure of the joint venture with the Russian partners should be finalised “by the end of May”, said Andreas Sperl, chief executive of the Dresden-based Elbe Flugzeugwerke facility, which will partly manufacture the new plane. He added that the freighter has already raised interest from one potential customer, who would be ready to order 30 units. AFP (07/04), Cinco Dias