From Repair to Production: Belarus to Develop Own Civil Aircraft by 2030

Minsk intends to move from repairing aviation equipment to full-fledged industrial cooperation with Russian partners and present its own civil aircraft as early as 2029–2030. This was announced by the head of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Belarus, Dmitry Krutoy, on the state television channel "Belarus 1".

We are mastering aircraft construction practically from scratch, without having a base from which we could build upon. If we talk about numbers, they look impressive: production growth ranged from 30% to three times. There is good contact with all the key aircraft factories in Russia, both with our 558th plant in Baranovichi, and with the Minsk Civil Aviation Plant, and the Orsha Aircraft Repair Plant. The President quite rightly noted that we have not yet reached a full-fledged program for loading our production facilities. We are building several production buildings: from painting to the production of complex long parts for aircraft, the import substitution of which is handled by Russian manufacturers.

Dmitry Krutoy, Head of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Belarus

According to the official, the key goal of the national aviation strategy is to form a new engineering school and develop competencies in the field of aircraft construction. Krutoy emphasized that the construction of production facilities, in particular in Baranovichi, should be accompanied by a clear understanding of their workload. Otherwise, he stressed, such investments would be impractical. The culmination of the program being implemented should be the creation of a completely Belarusian civil aircraft.

At the moment, the official added, a large-scale complex of works has already been deployed in the country, aimed at achieving this goal.