Mikhail Mishustin: “Our country has a sufficient technological potential and all the resources to make a crucial breakthrough in aircraft engineering and, as a consequence, to provide our citizens with guaranteed opportunities for convenient flights – comfortable and safe.”
Opening remarks by Mikhail Mishustin:
Mikhail Mishustin holds strategic session on the development of aviation industry
Mikhail Mishustin holds strategic session on the development of aviation industry
Mikhail Mishustin holds strategic session on the development of aviation industry
Good afternoon, colleagues.
Today we will consider important issues of developing aviation industry.
The President has set large-scale tasks of upgrading the Russian airlines’ fleet. No doubt that our country needs an up-to-date air fleet based on own technological solutions and potent production facilities.
Under sanctions and external restrictions, we need to create the entire range of Russia-made hardware required for developing reliable connectivity between our regions and achieving a strategic goal – increase in the air mobility of our citizens by one and a half times as early as by 2030.
Of course, we are also building comfortable airport terminals, upgrading airfield infrastructure, and modernising flight control systems, which helps expand the destination network. And as a result, internal flights are becoming more comfortable for greater number of passengers.
We have set up a specialised federal project Planes and Helicopter Production in order to provide for an independence of the Russian civil aviation. It is included in the Industrial Support for Transport Mobility technological leadership national project launched, to remind, from the beginning of this year. We are to allocate the total of 765 billion roubles from the federal budget for its implementation within six years.
Primarily, they will be applied for building aircraft, competitive engines, avionics and various technical systems. And the whole range of knowledge-intensive equipment. I mean the development of truly unique products that have no Russian analogues yet, which should be mastered in production.
In this regard we, of course, expect high efficiency and coordination from our research centres, design bureaus, sectoral enterprises and thousands of component suppliers engaged in the cooperation chains.
I would like to single out several key challenges that aviation industry enterprises should overcome.
First of all, it is necessary to complete all research and development projects in all programmes currently being implemented.
Some preliminary results have been obtained. Yesterday, they successfully tested radio-electronic equipment of our MC-21 flagship aircraft during its flight tests. A Yakovlev Yak-40 flying laboratory with a VK-800 engine successfully took off for the first time. VK-800 engines will be installed on Baikal aircraft for local routes and on the light multi-purpose Osvey aircraft being developed by Russia and Belarus.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the upgraded Sukhoi Superjet 100 featuring a PD-8 engine is to be certified completely not later than December 2025. I would like to remind you that, quite recently, it flew from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Zhukovsky. The same is true of the Ilyushin Il-114 regional airliner that we saw last week at the Innoprom international industrial exhibition in Yekaterinburg.
According to our plans, batch production of the MC-21 and the Baikal should commence in October and December 2026.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that it is necessary to stipulate specific deadlines for every aircraft type. This also concerns import-substituted versions of the well-known Tupolev Tu-214 and Il-96–300 models, as well as our other projects, including Ladoga and Osvey. This is also true of various helicopters, including the light-engine Mil Mi-34, Ansat and Kamov Ka-62 helicopters, as well as such heavy-duty models as the Mi-38 and the Mi-171. It is important that the final specifications and performance of the new Russian aircraft should meet parameters that have been coordinated with airlines.
Another no less serious objective is linked with the implementation of investment projects aiming to expand production assets at all enterprises involved in this cooperation, considering current high loan costs.
Three years ago, the Government approved a comprehensive programme for the development of the aviation industry until 2030. This was done to provide comprehensive support for aircraft manufacturers and to modernise enterprise facilities.
It has to be revised in the context of new challenges. We need to update annual aircraft delivery timeframes, depending on the current situation.
I would like to note that we cannot lag behind, as this may hamper the growth of passenger traffic volumes. This is a high-priority objective.
Colleagues,
I suggest analysing the current status of every project, specific results and existing challenges down to the smallest detail, and we should chart decisions that will make it possible to launch large-scale and full-cycle batch production of various aircraft models.
Our country has a sufficient technological potential and all the resources to make a crucial breakthrough in aircraft engineering and, as a consequence, to provide our citizens with guaranteed opportunities for convenient flights – comfortable and safe.
