ZCZC
BFF-35
RUSSIA-US-AEROSPACE-SANCTION
US sanctions force Russia to delay MC-21 plane: Rostec CEO
MOSCOW, Feb 18, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Production of the MC-21 plane, which
Russia hoped could revive its civil aviation industry, has been delayed for a
year due to US sanctions, the head of the Rostec conglomerate said Monday.
“Due to the fact that the Americans have stopped supplying composite
materials, we are switching to our own,” Sergey Chemezov told Russian news
agencies in Abu Dhabi.
“The date of the beginning of mass production is slightly shifting” and is
now expected by the end of 2020, he said.
Sanctions came into force last September against Russian companies
involved in the creation of the plane, which Washington said were acting
“contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United
States”.
Both Rostec and Chemezov have been specifically targeted in separate
rounds of sanctions.
Russia unveiled the prototype of the MC-21 in 2016, originally announcing
plans for it to come into service in late 2018.
The plane, produced by the Irkut aircraft manufacturer, was designed to
challenge industry giants Airbus and Boeing.
The MC-21 can carry up to 211 passengers and is designed for the mass-
market travel industry. It can fly up to 6,000 kilometres (3,700 miles),
according to the makers.
The makers have promised a “new level of comfort” for passengers thanks to
the largest fuselage in the plane’s class and large windows.
Irkut says it has signed contracts with a number of airlines, including
Russian flagship carrier Aeroflot, UTair and the Kyrgyzstan Air Company.
The delayed launch would come nine years after Russia’s short-haul Sukhoi
Superjet aircraft came into service in 2011. It has since suffered serious
technical issues that have forced the plane’s grounding.
A Superjet performing at an Indonesian air show in 2012 slammed into a
volcano, killing all 45 on board, in a crash Indonesia blamed on pilot error.
Washington first imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014 following Moscow’s
annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine.
The United States and European Union have since imposed several rounds of
sanctions against Russia and Russian individuals.
Chemezov told AFP in an interview late last year that state-owned Rostec,
which oversees Russian arms production, was doing a brisk trade in weapons
systems despite the trade restrictions.
Chemezov, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, has nonetheless announced
plans to increase sales of Rostec’s non-military products.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1945HRS