The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has hit it out at the country’s reliance on foreign-made aircraft during the combined ‘Direct Line’ Q&A session and year-end press conference.
Speaking in front of a selected audience and viewers at home, the Russian leader said that the market is currently “overloaded” with planes manufactured by Airbus and Boeing.
To rectify Russia’s over-reliance on foreign-made aircraft, Putin has announced a plan to build 1,000 passenger planes domestically by 2030.
“We need to develop our own aircraft production […] and we plan to make more than 1,000 of our own airplanes by 2030,” Putin said.
According to Russian news outlet Tass, Putin plans to produce Irkut MC-21 passenger jets and switch over to Russian engines for certain aircraft.
On December 14, 2023, the ‘Direct Line’ Q&A session and year-end press conference were held together rather than separately as in previous years.
According to presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, this was to enable Putin to summarize the year’s results in all areas at once.
The Russian aviation industry has struggled to operate effectively since Western sanctions were put in place after Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine.
Russian airlines have been unable to legally obtain the Boeing and Airbus parts that are desperately needed to keep their aircraft in good order.
It is understood that, until now, Russia has relied on the black market to source parts and has even set out plans to manufacture replica Boeing and Airbus components.
