Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) has set a goal to double its annual income and increase civil aircraft deliveries from 37 in 2014 to some 150 within 10 years, according to company president Yuri Slyusar. Speaking at the April 16-17 Second Council of Russia’s Aircraft Manufacturers in the Volgan city of Ulianovsk, Slyusar promised a new direction for the company after the heavy burden of hired capital for renovation of factories led to a net loss last year.
According to official UAC statistics, last year the corporation saw a 30-percent year-over-year increase in jetliners produced. Precisely, it built 37 Sukhoi Superjets, 10 of which went undelivered. Plans for 2016 and 2017 now call for flat delivery rates, at 34 annually, compared with an earlier delivery projection of 60 airplanes in 2016. Today, the fleet of operational SSJ100s in service with domestic and foreign operators “has exceeded fifty,” said Slyusar. (On January 29, Slyusar said 54 SSJ100s were flying with commercial airlines and governmental operators.)
Of those, 13 SSJ100s operate outside of Russia, Slyusar said. Apparently, he counted only the aircraft delivered to Mexico’s Interjet since 2013, and excluded from the figure the four still-grounded SSJ100s delivered to Indonesia’s PT Sky Aviation and Laos’s LAO Central in 2014.
“The priority is given to the domestic market, but since the demand there is not big enough to justify investments, we must sell hundreds of our airplanes on the global markets,” the UAC president said. “This is our goal in the domain of civil aircraft.”
Touching on prospects for the Superjet, Slyusar said that UAC will offer its customers “a wider range of regional aircraft, with a number of seats ranging from 75 to 130.” That would mean restoration of an earlier plan to produce three versions of the Superjet in addition to the already certified baseline version, whose seating capacity ranges from 87 in the two-class layout used by Aeroflot to 103 in the high-density arrangement flown by UTair.
“Besides, in the foreseeable future, UAC will need to come up with modernization proposals for serially made aircraft types, with respective technological solutions being discussed,” he said, adding that final decision on the matter will come only after UAC submits proposals to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his consideration.
The UAC president further said that the Russian government is considering injecting additional funds into the capital base of national leasing companies apart from the 100 billion rubles ($1.9 billion) that the Kremlin promised to invest in UAC on March 26. Slyusar hopes the national leasing companies will manage to place with Russian airline customers some 30 to 50 locally made aircraft this year, chiefly SSJ100 “white tails” already rolled out and sitting in the final assembly shop without customers. As of January 13, the factory in Komsomolsk-upon-Amur had built 84 SSJ100s, including eight prototypes and semi-experimental examples.
Meanwhile, plans call for UAC to produce the Irkut MC-21 next-generation narrowbody jetliner, scheduled to make its maiden flight next year, at annual rate of up to 72 aircraft, Slyusar said. He claimed that the number of orders and commitments now stands at 175 aircraft. UAC confirmed earlier plans to develop a three-member family of jets to seat 150, 180 and 210 passengers, respectively.
Slyusar also mentioned the 215-seat Tupolev-204SM, expressing hope that, as sanctions against Iran ease, Moscow can re-approach Tehran with an earlier offer of license production at the HESA plant in Isfahan. “We are holding discussions on the theme in a hope that the advantages of the technological cooperation between us and Tehran’s desire to lessen import dependency be found attractive by both parties,” said Slyusar. He noted that a preliminary decision on the sale of Tu-204SM to Iran taken in 2007 ran into obstacles because the U.S. prohibited use of the Aviadvigatel PS-90A2 turbofans on the Iran-bound aircraft based on the engines’ use of American technologies. If sanctions do eventually ease, UAC “can consider making Tu-204SMs at a rate of four to five aircraft annually,” concluded Slyusar.