The first deliveries of Russia’s MC-21-300 narrowbody to launch customer Aeroflot (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo) have been postponed to 2021, Sergey Chemezov, chief executive of Rostec Corporation, has confirmed while rejecting the idea that the Russian flag carrier should receive compensation for the delay.
“Serial production of the MC-21 will be delayed until 2021. Aeroflot won’t receive the first aircraft before 2021,” the head of Rostec, which owns the MC-21’s manufacturer Irkut, told the newswire TASS.
“I don’t think Aeroflot should impose any fines because it is an unavoidable event in that sanctions applied by another state are classified as force-majeure. [...] So far we haven’t discussed this matter, but we have sent the relevant letter to Aeroflot,” added Chemezov, who has been on Aeroflot’s board of directors since 2011.
Rostec, a state-owned industrial technology giant, is currently taking control of United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), parent of Russia’s major aircraft manufacturers Sukhoi, MiG, and Irkut, a process that should be completed in 2020. It also owns a 3.5% stake in Aeroflot.
Chemezov also assured that production of the MC-21’s wing, to be created from Russian-made composites, would begin soon.
“The composite material has been created, it is now being tested. I hope that soon we will start producing the wing and testing it on the aircraft,” he said.
Chemezov said earlier this year that manufacturing the composite wing would push back production of the MC-21 to late 2020. Russian-made materials had to be found when United States sanctions prevented composites made in the US and Japan from being shipped to Russia. In April, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov said deliveries would start no earlier than 2021, TASS reported at the time.
