The launch of production of upgraded Il-114 aircraft will require about 24 billion rubles of investments, governor of Samara Region, Nikolai Merkushkin, told RIA Novosti.

Earlier the Deputy Chairman of Russian Government, Dmitry Rogozin, said that President Vladimir Putin supports the idea of developing a passenger aircraft derived from Il-114. According to Rogozin, China is interested in joint production of the aircraft. He also added that this vehicle is able to carry out patrol missions on behalf of the Ministry of Defense.

"In order to launch the production of Il-114 we will need around 24 billion rubles allocated from the federal budget", — Merkushkin said noting that he hopes that the production will be launched in Samara Region. He believes that Aviacor is one of the most suitable enterprises for this task.

"The government will have to invest a lot of money, but Aviacor is a private company. Will the private company be able to invest money on parity basis? What relations will be established between the parties? And so on. This is the big problem. We are working on it… We will negotiate with the owner", — the governor added. Merkushkin also added: "We are ready to support the project no matter how complex the budget will be".

In August President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, instructed the government, Ministry of Defense, Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to Privolzhsky Federal District (and other organizations involved) to estimate the cost of a project for launching mass production of Il-114 aircraft at Aviacor aviation plant (Samara). Experts told RIA Novosti that the vehicle needs significant upgrade; in particular, the engines and all the avionics must be replaced.

Il-114 turboprop was developed by Ilyushin design bureau in 1980s for operation on regional routes. According to some sources, less than 20 Il-114s have been manufactured. Later a number of civil and military versions of the aircraft have been developed.

Aviacor is the aviation plant, one of the Russian aircraft industry’s largest enterprises. Its core business is aircraft production, repair, maintenance as well as deliveries of spare parts for Tu-154M and An-140 aircraft. The plant is one of Russian enterprises having experience in the area of mass production of civil and military aircraft (using components manufactured by the enterprise on its own). It is part of Russian Machines Corporation, which comprises machine-building assets of Basic Element Group.