In 2023–2024, deliveries of the Russian medium-range civil aircraft MS-21 to non-CIS airlines can begin. This was announced on the television channel "Russia 24" by the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov.

“The first commercial deliveries will begin in 2021. Of course, we will begin to supply first to Russian airlines near-abroad, although there are customers from far abroad in the order portfolio, but this will be oriented to 2023-2024, ”Manturov said.

According to him, among the customer countries there are states of Southeast Asia, in particular, Malaysia.

Earlier in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade announced that 13.7 billion rubles of public funds would be required to bring the MS-21 aircraft to the commercial market. We also note that, according to a government decree of January 2019, 4.11 billion will be allocated for subsidizing the production of MS-21 aircraft in 2020, and 4.81 billion rubles in 2021.

The near-medium-haul passenger aircraft MS-21 is a project being developed by Irkut Corporation and Yakovlev Design Bureau. The airliner should compete with the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. His first demonstration flight took place on May 28, 2017. The family of liners will have a capacity of 150 to 210 passengers.

As the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Yuri Borisov, noted, in 2020 the aircraft must receive a certificate from the Federal Air Transport Agency, and in 2021 - pass the validation of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). At the same time, UAC CEO Yuri Slyusar expressed the hope that in 2022 the aircraft could be certified with the Russian PD-14 engine.

As reported by Rostec State Corporation, serial assembly of MS-21 aircraft will begin in 2020.

However, at the moment four copies of the airliner are ready. The fourth aircraft of this model made its first flight on December 25. It went in normal mode at an altitude of about 3 thousand meters at a speed of about 500 km / h, its duration was 1 hour 40 minutes. The plane was piloted by test pilots, Heroes of Russia Roman Taskaev and Oleg Mutovin.

We add that in August the medium-range passenger aircraft was demonstrated at the International Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS). In Zhukovsky, three MS-21-300 models were used - one for participating in the flight program, two more for static parking. In addition, as early as next month, the foreign premiere of the airliner took place at the TEKNOFEST festival of aviation, space and technology in Istanbul.

“Everything should work out”

As noted by a leading expert at the Center for Political Technologies, economist Nikita Maslennikov, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is making the necessary efforts to implement the project of the Russian medium-range civilian aircraft.

“Here I think everything should work out. Another thing is that we have problems with the refinement of the model. It is important to meet deadlines, but the main thing is to tighten the quality of the machines. I think that the experience of 2019 has shown that there are large reserves, as well as large resources. Despite the breakdowns, failures and other emergency situations with the machines, there is a demand for our combat aircraft and civilian aircraft. It is necessary to carefully study the market and reach the model to the level of international competitiveness. Here we have many opportunities. If you do not set hard goals for yourself, then nothing will work out, ”the source said.

Vladimir Popov, Merited Military Pilot, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Aviano Panorama magazine, does not doubt the success of the MS-21 among foreign airlines due to the demand for medium-haul aircraft, as well as the lower price, while the quality is comparable to that of Boeing and Airbus.

“I think the timeframes mentioned by Manturov are real, there are such opportunities, and we should not be afraid that the sanctions cut off the wings of our aviation industry. On the contrary, sanctions encouraged us to independently produce the entire line of airplanes and helicopters, to restore the potential wealth of our state that was still in the Soviet Union. Correctly, Manturov says that, in the end, we will win back, to put it mildly, our sector in the global economy in the aviation industry. Because in terms of quality and prospects of technological assembly of airplanes and helicopters, we are in no way inferior to the West. It remains to carry out tests - this is a lengthy process, which is why the transfer of these aircraft to serial production is delayed, ”Popov explained in an interview with RT.

The expert also expressed confidence that domestic civilian aviation products will become competitive in the world market.