Russia and China intend to establish a joint venture for development of long-haul passenger aircraft

Russia and China are going to establish a joint venture intended for development of long-haul passenger aircraft, Lenta.ru reports with reference to Vedomosti.

According to the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Yuri Slusar, the new aircraft will be developed on the basis of Il-96 designed in late 1980s. Russia will contribute intellectual property to the joint venture between United Aircraft Corporation – UAC (Russia) and Comac (China), while China will contribute money. The jets will be manufactured in China.

The estimated cost of new aircraft’s development is unknown. The starting date for the liner’s production was not specified either: the parties will begin with estimating the demand for such jets at Russian and Chinese market.

It stands to mention that UAC was going to develop the new long-haul aircraft using its own resources. Mikhail Pogosyan, president of UAC, stated during MAKS-2011 that Russia will be developing such aircraft, but he did not specify any details. Most likely that UAC is going to start this project after setting up the production of Superjet and МС-21.

Russia was trying to establish the serial production of Il-96-300 aircraft during last decade but failed due to low demand. Ex-president of UAC, Alexey Fedorov, named Il-96 among the jets, whose production yields losses, in 2009.

At present the long-haul liners are mostly produced by Boeing and Airbus.