BOEING 717 CERTIFIED FOR SALE TO CIS AIRLINES

The Boeing 717 is now certified for sale to operators in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Ukraine, according to Tom Croslin, chief project engineer of the 717 program, at the Long Beach Division of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

Croslin represented the program at a special ceremony at which he received certification documents from Anatoly Kruglov, chairman of the CIS Aviation Register, and from Yuri Kordyanin, deputy director of the Aviation Register of Ukraine (UKRAVIATRANS).

Certification of the 717 in the CIS and Ukraine opens the door to additional sales opportunities for the 717 in the former republics of the Soviet Union, including Ukraine. Issuance of the certificate culminates more than two months of intense activity supported by Boeing, the CIS Aviation Register, UKRAVIATRANS, and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which cooperated in the process.

"The 717's robust design and the DC-9 family's excellent service history contributed to compliance of the Aviation Register's stringent airworthiness requirements," Croslin said.

The Aviation Register and Ukraine certified the DC-9 and DC-10 models in 1993.

The Boeing 717-200 is the only new 100-passenger short-range jetliner in revenue service. It was jointly certified by the FAA and Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities in 1999, and has been in operational service for nearly 18 months.