The comprehensive program for the development of the aviation industry until 2030 provides for the production of 70 Tu-214 aircraft. The first customer, Aeroflot, expects delivery of three liners this year. In 2024, seven planes will have to be produced, and from 2025 the aviation plant in Kazan will have to build ten Tupolev planes a year.
Undoubtedly, these are wonderful plans. On this occasion, Gorbunov Kazan Aircraft Plant even released a promo video, which was filmed with KAZ director Nikolay Savitskikh stating that “there will be no more Boeings and Airbuses” and that “the future of our aviation” is Tu-214. Here, of course, we can doubt the words of the head of the company, and the future of our aviation is the MS-21, especially since the aircraft with three crew members cannot claim to such a title.
This is what Aeroflot CEO Sergey Alexandrovsky pointed out in a large interview to RBC.
He noted that there is a strict requirement to the Tu-214 – it is a transition or modernization of the airliner to a version with two crew members. There are no flight engineers for this airplane in the civil aviation now, there are only military and cargo carriers.
On the other hand there are still opinions on the necessity of the third crew member in the cockpit. This is due to the fact that there is a rule: in a flight with two pilots, if one pilot leaves, then his place should be taken by the senior flight attendant. With a three-member crew, this requirement becomes irrelevant, as the role of “duty” will be performed by the flight engineer.
In addition to the three crew members in the cockpit, the Tu-214 has one more disadvantage – power plant 2xPS-90A. This is the engine of the previous generation and its fuel consumption is approximately by 10% lower than that of foreign analogues. Specific fuel consumption of the Tu-214 aircraft – the ratio of consumption per 1 km of distance to the number of passengers – according to various sources is in the range from 18.3 to 19.0 g per passenger-km. Airbus A321 has this indicator 18.2 g/passenger-km, A320-200 19.1, A320neo – 15.3, MC-21 – 15.1. The hourly fuel consumption of 3,200-3,700 kg is also higher than that of the foreign “classmates” and the MC-21.
Moreover, the PS-90A engine is inferior to its foreign counterparts in its life between overhauls. However, according to the industry experts, this, as well as the higher fuel consumption is not critical in the current situation, because the aircraft are needed urgently, there is no sense in competing within the country in terms of efficiency, given the ban on the supply of foreign aircraft and components. Foreign customers, if any, are more likely to show interest in the MS-21, but not in the Tu-214. And if we compare it with the operation of Boeing and Airbus, the increased fuel consumption is compensated by the difference in maintenance and spare parts cost, while the PS-90A is reliable, it has been further developed and is still being improved.
In June 2022 it became known about allocation of 15.4 billion rubles from budget for restoration of airworthiness of eight Tu-204/214, two Il-96 and one An-124. Part of the money is envisaged for the modernization of systems and assemblies of Tu-214 with the following approval of the main change in the type certificate for the aircraft. Out of the eight Tu-204/214, Red Wings expects to receive four planes after the restoration of their airworthiness. It is expected that two of the machines will join the airline’s fleet in the spring of 2023 and another two in the spring of 2024.
One can look at the restoration of the airplane production with the reserved optimism taking into consideration the fact that the piece production of the liner for the special air squadron “Russia” is underway at the KAZ and that the version Tu-204SM with two crew members was being built at the Ulyanovsk Aviation Plant some time ago. Although some experts are looking at a significant increase in the production of Tu-214 with progressive pessimism, the reasons – below.
Allocation of budget funding for the modernization of the Tu-214 and the subsequent approval of the main change in the type design of the airliner may just say that the cockpit will be brought to the two-crew version. Tupolev Design Bureau received a similar addition to the Type Certificate for the Tu-204SM aircraft in December 2013.
The cycle of building the Tu-214 is about 24 months. There are two slipways at the Kazan aircraft plant to build this aircraft, but at least one more is needed to meet the objectives. In mid-June 2022 Yuri Borisov, the deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation said that it would take three to five years to start the mass production of Russian aircraft in the required quantity. During this time the production of MS-21, Superjet New and Tu-214 should be massively increased.
The main expectations of the aviation industry are related to the MS-21, but the Tu-214 is practically not dependent on imports, and its production in Kazan can be increased. Honeywell (USA) supplied HG2030AE21 inertial navigation system, RDR-4B weather radar and EGPWS early warning system for the aircraft, Varta (Germany) supplied batteries, emergency equipment – Air Cruisers (USA). At the same time, in October 2022 Oleg Yevtushenko, the executive director of Rostec State Corporation, announced that Tu-214 consisted entirely of Russian components.
In July 2022, a special version of the Tu-214PU (RA-64534) entered the fleet of SLO Rossiya. The machine was built in 2021, and flight tests of the plane were launched on May 28 in Kazan. According to unofficial reports, this aircraft is operated by the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation. In 2022 new Tu-214 aircraft did not leave the KAZ workshops. A total of 34 Tu-214 were built in Kazan, and the total number of Tu-204/Tu-214 family aircraft built in the USSR and Russia since 1989, along with prototypes, amounted to 90 units.
In 2022, the Tu-204-300 (RA-64039, built in 2005) returned to Russian civil aviation. Until 2014, the aircraft was flown by Vladivostok Avia. The machine was converted to a VIP version and made its first flight after the modification on August 2, 2022. On November 11, the plane flew from Ulyanovsk to Vnukovo, its operator was Red Wings airline, which already has one plane with a similar configuration of the passenger cabin – Tu-204-100V (RA-64014).
In October it became known that the machines to be received by Aeroflot in 2023 had already started being built. But bearing in mind the two-year production cycle of Tu-214, the probability of building three new air craft in 2023 arouses doubts. This assumption is indirectly confirmed by the allocation of nearly 15.5 billion rubles for the restoration of eleven planes, eight of which are Tu-204/214.
Starting in 2025, the Kazan aircraft plant must reach a production rate of ten Tu-214s per year. “As the production of the MS-21 increases, the production of Tu-214 will decrease, but this aircraft can replenish the fleet of machines for cargo transportation. Besides, now it is quite in demand not only among passenger airlines, but also as a business jet,” Sergey Chemezov, Rostec CEO, said in an interview.
