Vladimir Putin visited the Irkutsk Aviation Plant, where he inspected the first production model of the MS-21 medium-haul passenger aircraft. The head of state entered the cockpit of the airliner, where test pilots Alexander Guskov and Sergey Mikhailuk reported to him on preparations for the first flight.

The MS-21 is a Russian narrow-body medium-haul aircraft developed by PAO Yakovlev. It was created to replace Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 family aircraft in the fleets of domestic airlines. The airliner has the widest fuselage in its class — 4.06 meters, and its wing, for the first time for aircraft of this class, is made of polymer composite materials.

The aircraft is equipped with Russian PD-14 turbofan engines. In a two-class configuration for 175 passengers, the estimated flight range of the import-substituted MS-21-310 version is 3830 km, which allows it to cover up to 90% of domestic routes.

Currently, 14 MS-21 airframes have been assembled, and another nine are at various stages of construction. Certification of the import-substituted version of the aircraft with PD-14 engines is expected to be completed in 2026–2027, after which serial production is planned to begin. The largest customer will be the Aeroflot group, which has expressed its intention to acquire at least 200 such aircraft. The first batch of 18 aircraft has already been contracted.

Earlier it was reported that the accumulated competencies in Russia for servicing Western Boeing airliners will not solve the problem of supporting the new MS-21-310s. Separate personnel will need to be trained for them, emphasized aviation expert Roman Gusarov.