Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) received subsidies to remove old aircraft from storage and restore them to a flyable condition.
The aircraft in question are two Ilyushin Il-96 wide-body airliners, eight Tupolev Tu-204/214 narrow-body midsized jets, and one Antonov An-124 heavy freighter.
According to Russian newspaper Vesti, the subsidies will be transferred to Rostec, UAC’s parent company. The amount of money transferred has not yet been announced.
Part of the sum will be used for research and development work to make upgrades to the Tu-214. Some foreign-made systems will be swapped for Russian ones, Vesti adds.
According to Vesti’s sources, the restored aircraft are expected to enter service with Russian airlines no later than 2024.
Russia’s airlines cannot purchase new foreign-made aircraft as a result of sanctions imposed on the country’s following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This has led to the initiation of a number of projects aimed at renewing Russia’s domestic aircraft industry.
Reviving mass production of Il-96 and Tu-214 has been considered since mid-March 2022, with a limited production run of 20 Tu-214s announced on April 6.
Both programs have been largely dormant since the 1990s, with just several Il-96s and Tu-214s manufactured every few years.
