Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a resolution extending the interest subsidy on loans that financial leasing companies take out to purchase Russian aircraft and then transfer them to airlines, the Russian government said in a statement.
The subsidy program currently applies not only to loans contracted between 2008 and 2021, but also to those issued in 2022. The government plans to allocate about 10 billion rubles ($166 million) from the federal budget to the subsidy program.
“It is important that this not only reduces the costs of leasing companies, but also partially offsets the growing financial burden on airlines. Consequently, the additional costs should not be passed on to passengers,” Mishustin said in the statement.
“This measure was effective and helped the industry to increase demand for aircraft. As we see, this mechanism remains useful in the context of external sanctions,” he added.
The program now specifically subsidizes the purchase of 59 Sukhoi SSJ100 aircraft, including seven aircraft built this year.
An all-local version of the SSJ-100, powered by the Russian-sourced PD-8 engine, will be introduced towards the end of 2023. Currently, the Superjet uses engines of French-Russian origin. The SaM146 was developed and built by PowerJet, which is integrated by Snecma and NPO Saturn.
