India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is not interested in civil aviation projects and a proposal by Russia's Irkut aircraft corporation to jointly develop MS-21 medium-haul airliners, HAL Chief Finance Officer D. Shivamurti said on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Irkut President Oleg Demchenko told reporters the company was holding talks with the Indian state-owned military aircraft maker on the joint development of MS-21 airliners.
Shivamurti told reporters HAL's first priority was defense transport planes and said the company did not currently produce any passenger planes.
Irkut has held similar talks with Airbus but the parties failed to agree.
The Irkut MS-21 airliner is a three twin-engine jet aircraft with a capacity of 150-212 passengers being designed and produced by the Irkut corporation and the Yakovlev design bureau, part of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation. The model was presented for the first time at the Farnborough international airshow in 2010.
BANGALORE, India, February 10 (RIA Novosti)
