Malaysian Lessor Orders 50 Irkut MS-21s

A new Malaysian lessor Crecom Burj Resources has ordered 50 Irkut MS-21 narrowbody aircraft, the ITAR-TASS reported.
The contract is reportedly valued at around $5 billion and deliveries are expected to begin in 2014 ( ? ) as reported, but this blog expects this should be 2016-2017.

The company expects to lease the aircraft to Asian airlines.
The MS-21, built by United Aircraft Corporation of Russia, is jointly developed by Irkut, Yakolev and Tupolev.
The aircraft in fact is a derivative of the Yakolev Yak-242 which never got beyond the drawing board. The aircraft will consist of 33% composite materials in the beginning with a composite wing planned by 2015.
The baseline MS-21-200 will carry around 150 passengers in a single class configuration, with -300 carrying 181 and -400 carrying 212 ( at standard 32in seat pitch ).
The -200 will have a MTOW of 67,600kg increasing to 87,230kg on the -400.
Both -200 and -300 are planned to have a 5000km range with -400 having a 5500km range.
The aircraft will be powered by either Aviadvigatel PD-14 or Pratt&Whitney PW1400G ( with both available as alternative choices for customer ).

PD-14

The aircraft is expected to be at least 15% more efficient than the Airbus A320/ Boeing 737 families.