Beyond Boeing and Airbus: Russian aviation industry takes on an impossible task

Sergey Chemezov, CEO of the Rostec State Corporation, announced the postponement of certification for the Il-114, Superjet-New, and MC-21 aircraft to 2026. For example, the latter will receive Aviation Register documents only by the end of next year. Experts in the aviation industry called this decision quite expected, because the initially declared deadlines until the end of 2025 seemed unrealistic.

The press service of Rostec did not explain the reasons for the shift in the certification deadlines for the Il-114 and Superjet. The United Aircraft Corporation and the Ministry of Industry and Trade also did not comment on this decision.

Big plans

It is worth recalling that the plan for the future of the industry in Russia is enshrined in the Comprehensive Program for the Development of the Aviation Industry (KPIA) until 2030 in the original version of 2022. Since then, the KPIA has been changed several times, but they planned to supply 142 SSJ-New, 270 MC-21, 51 Il-114-300, 113 Tu-214 by 2030. Oddly enough, Russian airlines have not received new aircraft since then.

Aimed for a million, hit for a penny

Aviation industry expert Roman Gusarov explained that there is nothing surprising in a slight shift in certification deadlines. Moreover, he called the previously announced deadlines unrealistic.

According to him, the customer of the first Russian ships will most likely be Aeroflot. The group knew about the postponement of delivery dates and did not expect to receive the aircraft in 2026.

Safety first, then flights

The shift in certification deadlines is caused by the need to complete testing on individual import-substituted aircraft systems, added Oleg Panteleev, Executive Director of the Aviaport agency. It is important for customers to receive not only safe aircraft. An equally important factor is the economic feasibility of their use, the specialist emphasized.

Nevertheless, passenger traffic in Russia may worsen in the future due to the lack of new aircraft. According to the results of 2025, Rosaviation expects it to decrease to 109.7 million passengers (-2% to 2024).

The retirement of the foreign fleet is coming, which is not repairable without the original system developers.

Earlier, www1.ru reported that the Rostec commission with Serdyukov and UAC came with an audit to the production of the PD-8 engine.

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