A group of consultants from Sberbank and Gazprom Neft is conducting an audit at UAC factories where new civil aircraft SJ 100, MS-21, Il-114 and Tu-214 are produced. Information about this was published by Kommersant. According to Kommersant's sources, the check is being carried out on instructions from the government given in the spring, when Rostec (managed by UAC) announced the postponement of aircraft deliveries.
Photo: aeroflot.ru
As part of the past SPIEF-2024, the CEO of Aeroflot Sergei Aleksandrovsky announced the possibility of transferring the order for 339 aircraft entirely to MC-21 due to the postponement of delivery dates for Tu-214 and SJ-100. Previously, the order consisted of 89 SJ-100, 210 MC-21 and 40 Tu-214. Experts from the business aviation portal ATO.ru explained the reasons for changing the details of the contract.
The transformation of the order began to be discussed, including due to delays in the development of new aircraft by the United Aircraft Corporation. The carrier expected that deliveries of the SJ-100 would begin at the end of 2023, and the first MC-21s would replenish the company's hangars in December 2024.
Difficulties with import substitution of components for the SJ-100 forced the UAC to postpone the delivery date of Sukhoi. for 2026. Certification tests of the import-substituted version, but not with Russian engines, started only on June 10 and will last until the end of 2025.
At the same time, suppliers assure the airline that the MC-21 will become available a year earlier: the target delivery date for the MC-21 – fourth quarter of 2025.
«According to plans approved by the Russian government, the Kazan aircraft plant should assemble 115 “carcasses”. However, there were oddities in the statistics presented: it indicated that in 2022 and 2023 the plant produced one Tu-214 aircraft each. During this period, the airlines were given planes, but they were used,” reported 116.RU.
The choice of the air carrier in favor of the MC-21 is also due to the need to support the increased volumes of passenger traffic. In order to maintain the current number of clients and continue to increase it, the company cannot be idle.
The airline previously said that delays in deliveries of Russian aircraft could lead to the loss of one million passengers in 2024 and about four million in 2025. And four million passengers – this is about 8.5% of the company's total passenger volume for 2023.
According to the author of the ATO.ru material, in the event of a long wait for the delivery of new aircraft, the carrier will be forced to more actively use the existing fleet, which could lead to its increased wear. This process is aggravated by Western sanctions, which prohibit the import into our country of spare parts for the core fleet of foreign aircraft. Now it is important for the company to switch to modern domestic vessels as soon as possible.
Experts are convinced that the same type of modern MS-21 will allow the company to unify its fleet.
«The MS-21 assembly production is immediately created for production volumes of over 30 aircraft per year with the prospect of expansion to 72 aircraft&rdash; notes the author of the material ATO.ru.
Therefore, the possible abandonment of the Tu-214 is explained by experts by the fact that it will be an additional type of aircraft for the group’s fleet.
“Initially, the Tu-214 was positioned as completely Russian, but it soon became clear that about 13% of the equipment on it also needed to be replaced, including avionics components and evacuation slides,” writes gazeta.ru.
Experts call it a possible problem and the pace of deliveries: the current capabilities of the Kazan aircraft plant are designed to produce one or two Tu-214s per year.
“For the planned increase in production to 17 aircraft in 2027, the company will need not only an additional workshop, the construction of which began only in November 2023, but also an increase in the pace of deliveries from suppliers of components and subsystems for this model,” &ldash; notes gazeta.ru.
Another argument in favor of the MC-21 is the fact that in the cockpit the aircraft crew consists of two pilots, unlike the Tu-214. Now in the cockpit of the Tu-214, in addition to two pilots, there is a flight engineer who takes control of some of the aircraft’s systems, but there are not enough of these specialists.
Experts are convinced that “the choice of MS-21 will give Aeroflot” ; a more effective, economical and universal tool for expanding air transportation volumes.
As a result, Aeroflot’s mega-order at 339 of the latest MC-21 can become an incentive for the entire domestic aviation industry and an opportunity to move to a new, higher quality level with the prospect of supplies to the markets of friendly countries. And the vacated slots for the supply of SJ-100 and Tu-214 in the future may be given to other domestic airlines that also plan to renew their fleets.