Russian state-owned technology corporation Rostec is experiencing substantial delays in its attempt to reactivate serial production of the Tu-214 mid-sized airliner.
Production is lagging behind schedule in great part due to the shortage of engineers and skilled workers, Russian financial newspaper Vedomosti reported on March 28, 2025, quoting internal sources at the company.
The Tupolev assembly line in Kazan, in Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan, was expected to complete four Tu-214 aircraft in 2025. However, according to the information which has appeared in Vedomosti, only one aircraft is expected to be completed in 2025, with work yet to start on a second one.
According to these reports, only two Tu-214 airframes are currently undergoing some type of work at the Kazan factory. One of them is being fitted with a special VIP configuration while the other, a restored airframe, is being used as a flying laboratory.
Some Russian airlines, as well as Russia’s state-owned aircraft leasing company, have expressed interest in acquiring the Tu-214 since 2022, when they saw their access to Western-made aircraft seriously hampered by the sanctions which followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Despite efforts to modernize it, the Tu-214 is a rather old design, based on the Soviet-era Tupolev Tu-204 airliner.
As was the case with other Russian aircraft programs, the Tu-214 program was revised in 2022 to replace to ‘nativize’ it, replacing foreign-made components. This has added further delays to the aircraft programs, since they have had to readjust supply chains and undergo recertification processes.
The Tu-214 is not the only Russian aircraft program to be facing significant hold-ups. In January 2025, the head of Rostec admitted that the firm’s flagship aircraft program, the MC-21, is also suffering delays that will push the start of serial production back until at least 2026.
The Russian government’s plan to revive the domestic aircraft production industry called for the building of 113 Tu-214 aircraft in the period between 2024 and 2030. In order to accomplish those production goals, some 92 billion rubles (around US$1.1 billion) have been poured into Rostec’s aircraft plant in Kazan.
Not only is this goal now in jeopardy, but it also appears that, despite the strategic nature of this industrial program, Russian carriers are not in any rush to receive the renovated version of the Tu-214.
Flag carrier Aeroflot, for example, has preferred to switch to other, more modern Russian-made types, such as the Superjet 100 regional jet and the MC-21 mid-sized airliner, even though the latter has yet to enter commercial service.
Other Russian airliners have gone to great lengths to keep their Boeing and Airbus aircraft flying, even by getting into the business of parts and components repairs and production.
A search on the Ch-Aviation database shows that, as of March 2025, only 40 aircraft of the several Tu-204/214 versions are active. The majority of these are operated by several Russian military and state organizations.
The only Russian commercial airline to operate the type is Red Wings, which has three Tu-204 and one Tu-214 on its books. Other operators include Air Koryo, the state airline of North Korea, which operates two Tu-204s; cargo operator Aviastar-TU, which operates three Tu-204s in its cargo version; and Business Aero, a private aviation operator, with one Tu-204 listed as active.
