The new import-substituted Il-96-400M conducted another test flight on May 6 over the Zhukovsky airfield. This was reported by the aviation blog "Letayem Vmeste".
The long-haul wide-body aircraft spent about 9 hours in the air. There are no technical details of the flight.
Aviation expert Oleg Panteleyev explained that the Il-96-400M was initially uninteresting to airlines that had already chosen Boeing and Airbus in this transportation segment. In fact, this situation makes the aircraft illiquid in the domestic market.
The head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Anton Alikhanov, noted that Russia had already started developing a new long-haul aircraft, but did not mention the Il-96.
According to him, aircraft manufacturers are consulting with market participants to avoid miscalculations and provide them with the desired aircraft in terms of characteristics.
