Russian aircraft manufacturing may face a new problem after the launch of series production of the Tu-214 and MC-21. The aircraft will be produced, but airlines may not necessarily want to buy them, according to Yuri Tretyakov, a technical director in the aviation industry.
The main difficulty is not related to production capacity, but to the economics of operation. Carriers will have to consider the cost of the aircraft, crew training, maintenance, and potential costs for refining the equipment for real series operation.
Suddenly it turns out that private customers are not very keen on flying these.
A separate question arises regarding the configuration of Russian airliners themselves. Tretyakov recalled that technical solutions such as the three-person crew of the Tu-214 were discussed without sufficient consideration for the interests of those who would operate the aircraft.
Neither administrative and legislative quotas for the number of new domestic aircraft types in airline fleets will silence company money, nor will they make flights profitable.
Alexander Yavkin, the chief designer of the Be-200 amphibious aircraft, noted that Russia's aviation industry continues to live by the rules of 1994, even though the rest of the world has long moved forward.