From 715 aircraft to four

The numbers tell why UAC exists. In 1990 Soviet industry produced 715 aircraft. Eight years later the figure was 56, and in 2000 just four civil aircraft were built. Military makers survived on exports and stocks of Soviet-era parts, but the airliner business was collapsing. A first consolidation under Boris Yeltsin, grouping MiG into the MAPO combine, failed. On 20 February 2006 Vladimir Putin signed Decree No. 140 creating a single joint-stock company from the shares of Ilyushin, Irkut, Mikoyan, Sukhoi, Tupolev and Yakovlev.

One roof for the great bureaus

The new corporation inherited famous names and old products: the Tu-154 and Tu-204, the Il-96 and Il-114, and every MiG, Sukhoi, Yakovlev and Ilyushin military type. The stated aim was to keep Russia the world’s third aircraft-building nation and to raise the group’s revenues from US$2.5 billion to US$7–8 billion within ten years. The MiG-35 was unveiled at Aero India in February 2007 and the Su-35S flew in February 2008. In 2009 UAC delivered 90 aircraft; in 2014 it delivered 161, including 37 civil aircraft.

Superjet, MC-21 and the Su-57

Its flagship civil programme was the Sukhoi Superjet 100, first flown on 19 May 2008 and in service from April 2011, marketed in the West through a joint venture with Italy’s Finmeccanica. On 29 January 2010 Sukhoi flew the T-50, Russia’s first stealth fighter, later named the Su-57. The MC-21 single-aisle airliner, with an out-of-autoclave composite wing, rolled out in Irkutsk in June 2016 and flew on 28 May 2017. A widebody, the CR-929, was launched with China’s COMAC.

Rostec takes control

In October 2018 the state handed UAC to Rostec, which already owned Russian Helicopters and the United Engine Corporation, putting almost the whole Russian aviation industry under one state conglomerate. Mikoyan and Sukhoi were formally absorbed into UAC in June 2022. Revenue reached ₽476.5 billion in 2023, but Forbes ranked UAC among Russia’s ten most loss-making companies for that year, with an IFRS loss of ₽34.8 billion.

Sanctions and import substitution

Western sanctions after the 2014 annexation of Crimea spared the airliners; those of 2022 did not. Imported parts already paid for stopped arriving, Italian police froze Superjet International’s assets, and the Pratt & Whitney-powered MC-21-300, certificated in Russia in December 2021, was abandoned. UAC is now rebuilding the Superjet as the SJ-100 and the MC-21 with Russian PD-14 engines; Aeroflot signed for 339 aircraft in 2022, but MC-21 deliveries have slipped to 2027. Vadim Badekha has led the corporation since 2024.

Заводы

• Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Plant · Komsomolsk-on-Amur — Sukhoi branch; Su-35S and Su-57
• Irkutsk Aviation Plant · Irkutsk — MC-21 and Yak-130
• Novosibirsk Aircraft Production Association · Novosibirsk — Sukhoi branch
• Kazan Aircraft Production Association · Kazan — Tupolev branch
• Aviastar-SP · Ulyanovsk
• Voronezh Aircraft Production Association · Voronezh

Люди

• Alexei Fedorov · first chief executive — Previously head of RSK MiG and co-owner of Irkut
• Yury Slyusar · chief executive, 2015–2024 — Sanctioned by the UK and US in 2022
• Vadim Badekha · chief executive since 2024
• Anatoly Serdyukov · chairman of the board — Former Russian defence minister