Boeing gets $2.2 bil. order for 777s

Boeing Co. won a contract from OAO Aeroflot to deliver eight 777 airliners that the Russian carrier will use to expand its fleet before the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi.

Aeroflot agreed to buy six Boeing 777-300ERs and two Boeing 777-200ERs, the companies said in a joint statement today during Vice President Joseph Biden's visit to Moscow, without giving financial terms of the contract. The order is worth about $2.2 billion, based on the catalog prices listed on Boeing's website.

Carriers in the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose grouping of Russia and 10 other former Soviet republics will probably spend $90 billion buying 960 new passenger aircraft over the next 20 years as they upgrade and expand their aging fleets, Chicago-based Boeing said in October.

“These Boeing 777 airplanes will strengthen our network strategy, particularly the international growth opportunities we expect from our joint businesses with SkyTeam partners when servicing the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games and the 2018 FIFA World Cup,” Aeroflot Chief Executive Officer Vitaly Savelyev said in the statement.