Presentation of new civil aviation facilities

The package of agreements being signed provides for the delivery and leasing of 90 MС-21–310 aircraft to the Aeroflot Group, as well as comprehensive technical support for a total of 108 aircraft – 90 new and 18 previously contracted. The United Aircraft Corporation is the supplier of the aircraft and the provider of their comprehensive technical support, Avia Capital Services is the leasing company, and the United Engine Corporation is a co-provider of technical support.

Among the civil aviation facilities presented to the President were new passenger terminals at Barnaul Airport named after German Titov, Orenburg Airport named after Yury Gagarin, and Pskov Airport named after Princess Olga; a runway and air traffic control tower at Makhachkala Airport named after Amet Khan Sultan; and the upgraded air border crossing point at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues,

Recently, a number of Russian regions – namely, the Republic of Daghestan, the Altai Territory, the Orenburg Region, the Pskov Region and the Sakhalin Region – have successfully implemented projects to build new airport terminals and to reconstruct airfield and border infrastructure.

First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to all the specialists who participated in this large-scale project for their diligence, responsibility and professionalism. For Russia, having a developed aviation network is an important factor in ensuring connectivity between regions and transport accessibility for remote areas, including in the Arctic, Siberia and in the Russian Far East.

Of course, modern airports serve as an additional driver of economic growth for the regions, helping boost trade, business activity and tourism by offering higher quality service and faster passenger processing.

Bearing this in mind, we are consistently upgrading airport infrastructure. As a result, across the country, since 2021, 20 runways and 26 airport terminal complexes have been brought into service. In addition to the new terminals that we are opening today, new airport terminals have been opened in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Khabarovsk, Magadan, Novosibirsk, Stavropol, Cheboksary and many other cities.

I would like to note that this work is being carried out using both state resources and the capabilities of the business community – a practice that is certainly to be welcomed. We will continue to provide all necessary assistance to the investors.

Meanwhile, we are improving the comfort and safety of passenger flights. To make air travel more affordable, three subsidy programmes are in place for the highest-priority, strategically important routes, specifically, those connecting central Russia with Kaliningrad and the Far East.

I can report that nearly 50 billion rubles have been allocated from the federal budget for these purposes over the current and previous year. This funding will enable approximately 10 million passengers to travel along these routes. Meeting public demand for air travel requires the continued, systematic, and consistent development of the industry – an effort we will certainly pursue in its entirety.

As a reminder, the plan calls for the modernisation of at least 75 airports by 2030, representing more than a third of Russia’s entire airport network.

Of course, we also need to expand and renew our aircraft fleet, which is of fundamental importance, to meet our airlines’ growing need for modern aircraft. Crucially, this must be achieved using domestic designs and technologies, especially given that we already have promising models available, such as the medium-haul MC-21. Eighteen of these aircraft are currently in production, with deliveries to Aeroflot scheduled to begin as soon as next year.

Today, we are taking another highly significant step in this direction: Aeroflot is ordering 90 new MC-21 aircraft. This is a major long-term contract that will fill the order books of our aircraft manufacturers, as well as their suppliers and contractors. I hope that it will be carried out in strict accordance with the schedule, without delays or disruptions.

Once again, let me stress that delivering on this objective will have a major bearing on increasing the mobility of the population, making air travel more accessible across the country, and ensuring the steady operation of the entire aviation sector.

In conclusion, I would like to thank everyone once again for your hard work and the results achieved. I wish you further success.

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Vladimir Putin: I would like to note that our country, as we are well aware of, is the largest in the world. And nowhere, not even in its remotest part, should people feel as though they are on an isolated island.

What is happening today is very important. It is a positive event – a festive occasion, one might say, without any exaggeration. It is a significant step forward in the development of the aviation sector because contracts have been signed, orders are in place, and we anticipate stable work at the manufacturing enterprises. This also concerns the development of transport infrastructure, specifically, the facilities we are commissioning now. However, this alone is not enough for our country, of course.

One of the key tasks is to ensure reliable regional air traffic. There are many issues here, and I am drawing the attention of my colleagues in the Government to this matter. I will not delve into the specifics as they are common knowledge. This concerns aircraft for short-haul transportation, the development of the necessary infrastructure, and so on. There is certainly work to be done, and we are well aware of that. That is what I wanted to highlight.

I would like to congratulate everyone on today’s event, especially those whose hands, organisational skills, and engineering talent have made today’s achievement possible.

Thank you very much. Congratulations.