Foreign aircraft companies should be pushed out of Russia’s domestic flights market, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Friday.
“Our main objective is to push foreign aviation out of the domestic market,” he said.
The deputy prime minister added that air carriers that perform domestic flights should inform representatives of Russia’s aircraft building industry about their technical requirements - passenger capacity, maximum flight length, fuel economy and so on - to Russian-made aircraft and guarantee that they would not buy foreign planes.
“Industrialists should answer when they are able to meet the requirements. And the government should provide favorable conditions, including subsidies and loans, and decide on how those productions should be apportioned among the existing production sites,” Rogozin said.
In early August, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called on industry and government to consider developing a new regional transport aircraft, either alone or with foreign partners and ordered the Trade and Industry Ministry, Russia's aerospace holding United Aircraft Corporation and local air transport operators to study the idea.
Russia has suffered a massive fall in regional air services since the collapse of the USSR in 1991. The nation has a huge demand for air transportation for remote areas where there are no rail or road links, especially in Siberia. The country relies on hundreds of aging Antonov An-2 biplanes which can carry 12 passengers, and Mi-8 helicopters.
