The Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia has announced that the country’s aviation industry is planning to boost its passenger aircraft production by five-fold to around 160 aeroplanes a year by 2025.

The proposed plans are part of efforts to regain a bigger share of the civil aviation market and expand presence to overseas markets.

Various designs and versions of airliners, including Sukhoi Superjet-100 and MC-21 and a planned wide-body airliner will be sold in the domestic as well as international markets, reported RIA Novosti citing the news paper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

The new long-haul airliner will be developed by Russia in partnership with Chinese companies.

"The aviation industry should be guided not only by the external market, but by the internal one as well, and we are headed in this direction."

In 1980s, Russia on an average produced 200 aircraft a year, which accounted for 30% of global aircraft production that time.

Last year, the country produced 37 passenger airliners and the military logged 110 orders.

The ministry said that around 80% of passenger aircraft in Russia are foreign-made with majority of them from Boeing and Airbus.

Around 90% of aircraft orders placed last year are for foreign-made airliners. The ministry expects this to drop to 85% by the end of this decade.

Russia Industry and Trade Deputy Minister Yuri Slyusar was quoted by Rossiyskaya Gazeta as saying: "The aviation industry should be guided not only by the external market, but by the internal one as well, and we are headed in this direction."

Inefficient and outdated facilities and lower workforce productivity have significantly contributed to holding the industry back and this trend is expected to shift in the coming years, the ministry added.

The government and companies have set sights in favour of the domestic aircraft industry in response to recent impact of Western sanctions and plans to revitalise air routes connecting Russian regions.

Defence Technology