Airlines to receive first six MC-21 aircraft with Russian engines in 2024 - Chemezov

MOSCOW. April 13 (Interfax) - Rostec State Corporation intends to deliver the first six MS-21 aircraft with Russian PD-14 engines to airlines in 2024, Rostec chief Sergey Chemezov said during government hour at the Federation Council on Wednesday.

"The first production MS-21s numbering six with domestic PD-14 engines will be handed over to customers in 2024," Chemezov said.

Before the imposition of sanctions on Russia, which limited, among other things, the supply of components for the aircraft industry, Rostec had planned to deliver the first four MS-21s in late 2022. Rossiya Airlines (part of the Aeroflot Group ) had been selected as the recipient.

The share of Russian components in the MS-21 is currently about 50%, said Yuri Slyusar, head of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC, part of Rostec). Deliveries of fully import-substituted versions of the aircraft should start in 2024, he said. By 2025, UAC plans to produce 36 MC-21 aircraft per year and further increase it to 72 per year, the UAC chief said.

Beginning in 2024, there are also plans to begin production of import-substituted versions of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 with Russian PD-8 engines totaling 20 aircraft per year. Slyusar said earlier that UAC was planning annual production of 20 Sukhoi Superjets but "it's possible that we could be talking about 30 such planes per year" and technologically the company is ready to produce 40 such aircraft per year.

Given the needs of airlines, there are plans to produce at least 150 more Superjets, the UAC chief said. According to the Transport Ministry, Russian carriers currently operate 148 Superjets.