Aviation Expert: S7 Tu-214 Deliveries Not Before 2029

S7 Airlines will receive a hundred Kazan-made Tu-214 aircraft, but serial deliveries will only begin in 2029. Why does the carrier need so many domestically produced aircraft and why are production rates so stretched? We asked these questions to Maxim Pyadushkin, managing director of the journal Air Transport Observer.

According to the aviation expert, the Kazan airliners are intended to replace foreign aircraft.

«For S7, this is an order for the future. The airline currently has about 100 aircraft, most of which are A320s and Boeing 737s with passenger capacity roughly similar to the Tu-214. If sanctions are not lifted, they can only be replaced with Russian aircraft,» Pyadushkin explained.

He also noted that the production rate of the Tu-214 is slow because the Kazan Aviation Plant is currently capable of assembling 1–2 aircraft per year, and to produce more, additional workshops and increased supply chains will be needed.

«The authorities previously set a goal to increase Tu-214 production to 20 units by the end of 2027 — then deliveries to airlines could begin, but until then the plant will assemble aircraft only for state customers. I think S7 soberly assesses the project: it won«t work before 2029, because the aircraft will still need to be refined to meet the airline»s requirements,» Pyadushkin said.

To date, the Kazan Aviation Plant has assembled only one «tushka» — from scratch and fully import-substituted. In December 2025, it was flown for the first time, without the livery of any airline.

Airlines continue to show interest in the model, but everything hinges on delivery schedules, which are regularly postponed. Head of Rostec Sergei Chemezov, in an attempt to justify the delays, said that no Western country «does not have a full cycle of aircraft production.» In reality, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) is being allocated billions for the modernization of the Kazan Aviation Plant to ramp up production.

At the end of 2025, a glimmer of hope appeared: the first import-substituted Tu-214 received approval for a major change to its type design and can now enter serial production.

For now, airlines have to make do with converted or recommissioned Tu-214 aircraft.