New footage of the arrival of the newest MC-21 aircraft in the corporate livery of the "Rossiya" airline at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg has gone viral online. However, the aircraft is not intended for carrying passengers at all, according to Ilya Shatilin, founder of the Frequent Flyers aviation project.
According to him, the aircraft was actually built exclusively for training pilots and flight attendants of the "Rossiya" airline, which will be the first operator of this type of aircraft.
It arrived in Pulkovo definitely not for transfer to Russia. The aircraft flies periodically, and this is probably another technical flight. But even when and if it is transferred to the "Rossiya" airline, it will not be possible to buy a ticket for it, because it was not originally planned to carry passengers on this particular aircraft.
As a reminder, the airline "Rossiya" intends to use only MC-21 in the future. The number of aircraft ordered from PJSC "Yakovlev" is still unknown.
Earlier, www1.ru reported that the Il-114-300 will receive its certificate only in 2026.