Russia's Irkutsk Aviation Plant ready to make up to 36 MC-21 planes annually

IRKUTSK. Aug 23 (Interfax) - Irkutsk Aviation Plant, a manufacturing branch of the Russian United Aircraft Corporation's Yakovlev, plans to produce up to 36 MC-21 planes a year, Yakovlev CEO Andrei Boginsky said during a visit to the Irkutsk enterprise on Friday.

"Its current capacity enables the output of 36 planes per year. The first contract has been signed and an advance payment for 18 MC-21 planes has been received from a leasing company," Boginsky said.

The plane's passenger capacity and configuration depends on the customer's requirements, he said.

"We have a standard customer - the Aeroflot group of companies. Consequently, after the plane's serial production starts, efforts to expand the conditions of its operations will certainly continue," he said.

The MC-21 is manufactured by Yakovlev's Irkutsk Aviation Plant. The launch of its serial production has been postponed several times, and has now been scheduled for 2025. The MC-21 was initially an international cooperation project. However, after sanctions were introduced against Russia, the foreign partners quit the project, prompting Moscow to work quickly to replace the plane's imported systems and components with Russian-made ones.