According to the governor of Primorski Krai, Vladimir Miklushevski, the region will purchase three DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft, which will be operated on regional routes, Kommersant – Primorski Krai reports.

The officials hope that the aircraft will allow expanding the route network from 2 to 25 routes and help increase the passenger traffic tenfold by 2015.

The governor instructed his employees to make a detailed calculation for every scenario of aircraft acquisition. «We are considering two variants: purchase of the aircraft at the cost of regional budget or the vehicles may be purchased by the Far Eastern Airline, which is being established. At that, a part of its costs will be compensated in the form of subsidies, — the Department of Transportation of Primirski Krai’s administration explained. — We have carried out a thorough analysis: the vehicle should allow operation from short and unpaved runways. Finally we selected 19-seat DHC (Canada), which is, crudely speaking, may land even on a farm field. The runway with a length of only 360 meters is enough for it. Its range is 1800 km. The price of one aircraft is $6-7 million».

It is expected that the aircraft will be owned and operated by the Far Eastern Airline, which is being established by Aeroflot.