Russian airline Aeroflot said on Thursday it would sign a deal with Boeing in March or April for the delivery of six cargo planes.
The deal comes ahead of the result of a USD$3 billion tendering competition for 22 passenger aircraft, with Boeing's 787 competing with Airbus's A350 aircraft.
Both Boeing and Airbus have declined to disclose the details of their bids. Aeroflot is expected to announce the winner of the tendering by the end of this month.
Aeroflot's deputy director general, Igor Desyatnichenko, had said that the financial terms of delivering the six MD-11 cargo jets would depend on whether Boeing wins the deal on the passenger planes.
"We ought to sign the final contract (on cargo jets) by March 31, although it is quite probable that there will be a delay of one or two weeks," Desyatnichenko told a news conference, adding that the MDs would be delivered in 2007-08.
Aeroflot's cargo fleet now consists of four McDonnell Douglas DC-10 planes. McDonnell Douglas was bought by Boeing in 1997.
