Russian Industry Ministry to draft program to export aircraft in 2027-2028

MOSCOW. Sept 19 (Interfax) - Russia's Industry and Trade Ministry plans to prepare a program of measures to get Russian aircraft on the international market, Industry Minister Anton Alikhanov said.

"We're proceeding from the fact that production capacity and the demand that we see on the horizon of 2030-32-35, this production capacity is clearly greater than the demand formed on the Russian market. And, perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself, but it's obvious that by 2027-2028 we will have to prepare serious proposals for our leadership regarding a program of measures to enter the international market," Alikhanov said in an interview on Rossiya24.

This is work that will require the creation of internationally recognized certification centers, as well as infrastructure "for servicing our planes abroad," he said.

He said it is premature to give a financial estimate for this, but that "we will definitely do such work, because we certainly need the effect of scale. We need a market and it exists."

He said the most promising Russian aircraft for exports is the mid-range MC-21, serial deliveries of which have been repeatedly postponed and are now expected to start in 2025. The global market for this type of airliner amounts to "several thousand planes annually," Alikhanov estimated.

"Meaning, if we're talking about something serious, if we manage to correctly validate everything and undergo certification for deliveries abroad [...] production capacity will, perhaps, have to be increased even more than what is now factored into the comprehensive program for civilian aviation," Alikhanov said.

Production plans for civilian aircraft in Russia are laid out in the comprehensive program for the development of the country's aircraft industry to 2030, which was updated in May, pushing back the dates for the delivery of almost all airliners by a few years, including to 2025 from 2024 for the MC-21, to 2026 from 2023 for the SJ100, to 2025 from 2023 for the Tu-214 and to 2026 from 2024 for the Il-114-300.