MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. The MC-21 passenger jet is competitive and is on a par with Western counterparts by many parameters, for example, the wide body and convenient seats, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday at the meeting with women from the air staff of Russian air carriers.

The MC-21 is not inferior in terms of performance characteristics to Western airplanes but the airline will not be able to quickly change to it, pilot of Aeroflot Yulia Vasilevskaya noted during the meeting.

"You have noted the MC-21 is not inferior to Western counterparts but it is better by many parameters. Really better - it has a wider body, convenient spacing between seats, larger space for the baggage compartment," the President said. "Our competitors, including the US ones, behaved themselves very unfairly during several previous years, I believe. They put certain materials fully unrelated to the defense industry into sanction lists under the pretext that they are of dual purpose," Putin said.

However, even these restrictions did not prevent the project from completion. Russian manufacturers developed required components on their own, the head of state added.