The Irkutsk Aviation Plant plans to switch to working on passenger aircraft with a capacity of more than 211 people after mastering the production of the MS-21 and delivering serial aircraft to airlines. This was announced by the general director of the enterprise, Andrey Soynov.
According to the head of IAZ, the current line of Russian civil aircraft covers the main segments up to 211 passengers: up to 100 seats are for the SJ-100, up to 211 for the MS-21, and the lower part of the market is complemented by the Il-114-300. However, the higher capacity class remains open for now.
With the existing models, we currently cover the niche – 100 passengers for the Superjet, up to 211 passengers for the MS-21, and in the lower part of the segment, we are covered by the Il-114. The upper part of the market niche is currently open to us, and there is no Russian alternative for it.
He linked the transition to the next class of aircraft with mastering the production of the MS-21 and delivering serial aircraft to airlines.
I think that inevitably, after mastering production, after delivering the aircraft to airlines, it will be necessary to deal with the upper segments. That is, these will be aircraft with a capacity of more than 211 passengers.
Soynov did not name a specific start date for work on the new aircraft. However, projects for a higher capacity version of the MS-21 have appeared before: "Pervy Tekhnichesky" reported on the MS-21-500 for 250–270 passengers and subsequent development of a 270-seat option.
Soynov also noted that the plant is exploring the possibility of supplying MS-21 to friendly countries. Specific states and potential customers were not named in his statement.
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