SKOLKOVO, October 14. /TASS/. Russia plans to resume export deliveries of SSJ 100 passenger jet only after saturation of the domestic market expected to take place in 2022 at the earliest given the output schedule of 22-23 aircraft per year, Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov told reporters on Wednesday.
Such production output makes it possible to support profitability of the airplane production, Manturov said.
"We have already finalized all the internal agenda plans, enabling us to confidently support capacity utilization for this and the next year and probably with the overlap for 22. I believe [resumption of export sales - TASS] will objectively not happen earlier than in 2022. We can boost the capacity but we will not do so in order to keep [production] profitable - 22-23 aircraft per year. This is an optimal figure, which we have set in our program at present," he noted.
The United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) expected to achieve annual production of at least 30 SSJ 100 airplanes from 2021. SSJ 100 is the Russian close-range passenger jet with the maximum capacity of 103 seats.