Soviets to Start Long-Distance Airline Using Boeing Aircraft

The government is organizing a new long-distance airline company that will use U.S.-made Boeing aircraft and fly regular nonstop routes between the United States and the Soviet Union, the official news agency Tass reported Tuesday.

“The new air company will predominantly make non-stop flights to the United States, Australia, Southeast Asia and Africa,” said Yuri Mamsurov, head of the airline company working group.

Tass said the new airline, ACDA, would assist the Soviet airline company Aeroflot by providing service on long domestic and international flights. He said the large Boeing airplanes would help eliminate a space shortage on Aeroflot routes between Moscow and Kamchatka and Sakhalin in the Far East.

“The comfortable Boeing planes suit our requirements best, we believe,” Mamsurov told Tass. “According to a preliminary accord, starting from 1991 we are planning to buy five Boeing 747 planes initially. Later we will supplement . . . with both the 747 and the 767 planes. Eventually they will number 25.”