RYBINSK, April 24. /TASS/. The Russian aviation industry will need 644 airplanes by 2030, according to the presentation of Transport Minister Andrey Nikitin at the "Innovations. Technologies. Production" Forum.

In particular, this refers to four long-range airplanes, 332 medium-range airplanes, 98 short-range aircraft and 210 aircraft of regional and local airlines.

The Russian aircraft fleet consists of 1,089 airplanes at present, including 689 foreign ones and 391 domestically produced. Aeroflot contracted 18 MC-21 passenger jets and the deal for 182 more airplanes is in progress. S7 airline is engaged in contracting 100 Tu-214 jets.

"We have the huge demand for domestically made aircraft as regards the aviation fleet. We need not merely to build airplanes but we need to service and repair all of them - such a huge challenge," Nikitin said.