GTLK to receive extra budget funds to purchase Il-96-400M airliners

The future airliner is a passenger version of the Il-96-400T freighter (Leonid Faerberg / Transport-photo.com)

Russian government-owned lessor State Transport Leasing Company (GTLK) will receive an injection of 4 billion rubles (US$51.7 million) from the federal budget to help bankroll the purchase of two Ilyushin Il-96-400M widebody airliners. The aircraft are scheduled to enter into operation by 2021. The corresponding decree, signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, has been published on the government website.

The two aircraft, manufactured by United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), cost a total of 14 billion rubles. Of this sum, 200 million rubles will come from non-government sources, reads the explanatory note accompanying the decree. The airliners will be leased to as-yet-unidentified operators as part of the effort to support Russia’s aircraft industry, substitute airliner imports, and generate budget revenues from manufacturers and lessees.

As previously reported, GTLK is to take delivery of five of the type in 2020-23. The government is planning to allocate up to 50 billion rubles for the Il-96-400M program through 2021. In December this year, the government announced plans to add 3.595 billion rubles to the company’s capital specifically for work on the Il-96-400M program.

UAC contracted its subsidiary Ilyushin Aviation Complex to design the aircraft in early 2017. The Il-96-400M is a passenger version of the Il-96-400T freighter. At 9.56 m longer than the Il-96-300 baseline, it will seat 390 passengers. The prototype is expected to first fly in 2019. Charter carriers Royal Flight and Pegas Fly have earlier expressed interest.