Russian airframe manufacturer Aviastar expects “an important change in attitude” toward the midrange, single-aisle Tupolev Tu-204 airliner amid ongoing Western sanctions that have resulted in a sharp devaluation of the ruble. Although this year Aviastar, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) subsidiary based in Ulianovsk, expects to deliver just two VIP -configured Tu-204-300s to the Presidential Air Detachment, Aviastar CEO Sergei Dementiev sees good reason to maintain the plant’s ability to build the Soviet-era-designed narrowbody. “We are ready to take orders, including from commercial airlines,” said Dementiev.

Further hope lies with the prospect of loosening sanctions on Iran following an agreement to allow United Nations inspections of nuclear facilities in the Islamic Republic. Aviastar hopes that such a thaw in relations can lead to a re-start of the Iran-Russian Tupolev Purchase Program (IRTP), which called for Iranian acquisition of 210-seat passenger versions of the Tu-204 and license production of the airliners at the HESA plant in Isfahan. Still, Dementiev spoke cautiously on the prospect. “We will address this issue closely when we are asked to,” he said.

Today, Tupolev and Aviastar receive “mostly positive feedback” on a single Tu-204-120CE flying in China. “They have glued a lot of sensors onto the airframe to study its aerodynamics, stiffness and so on,” said Dementiev. “They bought this airplane from us in order to make a good one of their own based on the achievement we have had.”

In the early 2000s, China placed an order for five Tu-204-120CEs and option for twenty 20 more, but accepted only one of them. A handful of airframes remain partially completed In Ulianovsk for the Chinese and other overseas customers who cancelled orders for various reasons. “They have been kept most carefully, and are as good as newly- built,” said Dementiev. “I hope that we will be able to complete all Tu-204s that stay incomplete at the plant, perhaps for other customers and versions differing from those theyat had been ordered.”

Aviastar stands as the largest aviation plant in the European part of Russia, occupying 4.5 million square meters in manufacturing facilities alone. “Our plant is able to produce everything that flies, from small jets to super heavy air lifters like the An-124 Ruslan,” according to Dementiev. “Aviastar has won many orders on other programs: series production of the Il-76MD-90A airlifter, overhaul of the An-124 Ruslan, and parts production for the Superjet, MC-21 and Il-112. The labor force is going to be the biggest issue should the Iranian order comes.”

At its peak, Aviastar’s labor force numbered 40,000; today the company employs 10,000.  Although Aviastar expects to create 700- to 800 more jobs annually, “qualified staff is likely to continue [to be] an issue for some time,” Dementiev conceded.

“We are set to increase productivity in order of times, chiefly through mastering digital technologies, computer-aided design and manufacture,” he noted. As part of that effort, Aviastar has recently acquired a fourth automatic riveting machine from U.S. manufacturer GemCor to supplement three already installed. Aviastar plans to use it to make parts for the Irkut MC-21, but it can also work for other programs.

Meanwhile, Aviastar is installing a modern conveyer type of final assembly line for the Il-76MD-90A in its final assembly shop. “This is one of the seven major modernization programs we are running simultaneously at the plant,” Dementiev said. To empty the space for the conveyer line, workers had to dismantle seven workstations for the Tu-204.

However, Aviastar management decided not to dispose of them, but rather move them to a nearby workshop and re-install them there. “We did this because we do hope for orders to come for the Tu-204,” concluded Dementiev.