Attempts to speed up the production of the Tu-214 at the Kazan Aircraft Factory are actively continuing, which is why information about how all this is happening is also actively penetrating the company through local media. The shift from the dead center in the form of one finished aircraft per year will still happen in 2026, but it will not reach the 4 machines that the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation has already promised. We are trying to figure out what they are saying in Kazan at the very end of June, especially since they began to engage in the company in earnest.
Let's start with the good stuff. A new and very large workshop, which began to be built back in 2022 specifically for the Tu-214, was completed, equipped with production equipment (new turning and milling processing centers) and will be launched in 2026. There is also high automation of production (two operators serve up to 8 robotic machines, the measurement of the quality of manufactured parts was entrusted to robotic complexes). However, people are still needed, and there are not enough of them. According to local sources, there is a lack of systematic work on staff training and retention, staff turnover, and a lack of masters and mentors in the personnel issue. There is also talk in the Kazan media about the long–standing problem of the local aircraft industry - excessive bureaucracy with reinsurance and an overabundance of internal standards in comparison with other Russian aircraft factories, which slows down work in the event of even a small problem. Along with the human factor, everything is still not smooth with machining products – there is no stock of parts in warehouses that would allow faster assembly of fuselages. It would be wrong to say that they are not fighting this. The work is underway, and here are the directions.
On the next two machines, the time for connecting the wing to the fuselage was reduced to just 2 weeks. This is a good result for the company, and we achieved it after installing the docking stand and, most importantly, working around the clock. Yes, in conditions where everything is not enough, we also have to increase the workload on staff. In the near future, a number of workshops are planning to switch to round-the-clock operation. Plus, in order to have enough parts, we are launching our own large machining center (more than 100 modern machines), and the process of commissioning new equipment is underway.
So how many finished Tu-214s will the Kazan Aircraft Factory produce in 2026? As we remember, the state, as the main investor, was promised as many as 8 boards for this year at the end of 2025. However, then the figure was adjusted to four with a doubling (!) in 2027. This volume was published in all official Russian media in early June 2026, as we described in our article.:
There were plenty of plans for the broadcast. Based on them, in 2028 the plant should already produce 20 Tu-214 per year. At the same time, in 2024 and 2025, we recall, 1 aircraft was produced here, and before that, they had not handed over anything to anyone for two years. In 2022-2023, the state provided significant amounts of financing, purchased new equipment, and built new squares to accomplish labor feats. But the transition from a single, actually "screwdriver" assembly to a production one for an old-format enterprise, which was actually a factory that had been hanging in its small-town atmosphere for a long time, is not an easy matter. And then Russia's second carrier, S7 Airlines (aka Siberia), came to the door and ordered 100 aircraft with the start of delivery of the first machine in 2029 (the biggest customer wants a Tu-214 with two crew members instead of three, as it is now). And Red Wings Airlines has promised 11 planes starting in 2027. June 2026 is coming to an end. What happens to the actual delivery of the aircraft?
According to the information described in the Kazan media and social networks, the only Tu-214 RA-64536 produced in 2025 was handed over to the customer in May 2026, and it had never been heard before. This is Jetlet, a company based at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport with a fleet of a couple of helicopters and a couple of business jets. But this is last year's car, what's next? Next comes, respectively, RA-64537, the first in 2026, it was withdrawn from the slipway, engines were received. The task has been set to transfer to flight tests in July, and a delay in their start is predicted by local sources. The second car built in 2026 with the registration number RA-64538 is in the final assembly stage. This Tu-214 has been delivered for final assembly and is at the stage of a docked fuselage. The third RA-64539 machine is still in assembly, and Kazan is also expressing doubts about its full readiness by the end of this year. Thus, if all the information from local sources is completely true, then in 2026 the plant will deliver 2 new aircraft at once, and the third flight will smoothly flow over the deadlines for the beginning of 2027. The total is 2.5 planes instead of one, but not 4, as promised to the state. In 2027, we will have to catch up on this and further increase the volume, because even four new Tu-214s will not suit anyone in Moscow. More are expected there.
Against this background, the information went "to finish off", as they say, that they want to reduce the weight of the aircraft by 2.5 tons, and "ram" 220 people into the cabin in a new maximum layout. To this will be added a cabin for 2 crew members instead of 3, and a possible new name Tu-214M. The greed of carriers, of course, knows no bounds, and probably if they had their way, they would have crammed 250 people standing in the cabin, but there are still standards and restrictions on certification in our civil aviation. Meanwhile, when the failed first buyer of the new Tu-214 after 2022, the airline YuVT Aero, ordered the first 4 cars, they did not plan to mock passengers and saw an airplane with a standard distance between rows of seats in economy class (78 centimeters) plus business class – a total of no more than 182 passengers. Sibir (S7), which, by the way, will be a key customer at the Kazan Aircraft Factory in the coming years, has a different vision of the topic – they want a car with a single-class layout that can accommodate up to 213 passengers. In general, the "rubber" Tu-214 (or maybe the Tu-214M) is on the way. But first we need full-fledged mass production.
Ivan Zakharov, Evgeny Belkin
