Russian airlines will need a fleet of 500-600 aircraft by 2030 in order to provide substantial regional air transportation, the Minister of Transport, Maxim Sokolov, said during the meeting held by prime-minister, Dmitry Medvedev. The meeting was dedicated to the development of regional aviation.

"About 500-600 aircraft will be required by 2030. At present the fleet of Russian airlines includes almost 300 regional aircraft. The share of imported aircraft is 30%", — the Minister of Transport said. The share of new-built aircraft is low.

"Talking about the advanced aircraft, it stands to mention that Russian airlines are operating a total of three An-140s and 10 An-148s manufactured in Russia. We see that demand for regional aircraft is increasing in proportion to the development of route network and increase of passenger traffic. Most probably this will become one of the major restrictions in future, so we have to take some measures", - Maxim Sokolov noted.

In addition, Maxim Sokolov reminded that the decision on subsidizing the Russian airlines in the network of  leasing of regional aircraft was taken in 2012. As a result 26 aircraft with a total value of over 1.2 billion rubles were delivered to the Russian carriers in 2012. 

«We intend to increase the state support in 2013 and so we have allocated 2,1 billion rubles from the budget for these purposes. These funds will be used for subsidizing the leasing of approximately 40 aircraft. In the fulfillment of the order of the government we are making changes together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade in order to provide capability for leasing the Russian-produced aircraft like An-148 and Sukhoi Superjet 100. We hope that these jets will be operated on regional routes too. We also have regional routes, which demand a range of over 2000 km. We believe that these measures will help us grant the indicators specified in the roadmap for supporting the regional air transportation», - Sokolov explained.