The Antonov State Enterprise (Kyiv) plans to enter the final stage in terms of testing, certifying and creating a new configuration of the An-178 medium cargo transport aircraft without Russian components, State Enterprise President Oleksandr Los has said in an interview with the Ekonomichna Pravda edition.
“Beginning from January 1, 2023, we are to expand the production of An-178 to 12 aircraft per year alongside developing financial framework, expanding markets, and processing state orders from Ukrainian companies,” he said.
“This is what we obtain from the potential marketing analysis that is needed by Ukrainian state authorities and meets the demands of our potential customers,” he added.
Los explained that due to the historically existing dependence on Russian components, the An-178 is the only immediately prepared serial production to date.
“Passenger An-158 aircraft is in order, since both models are related in terms of equipment. We are also starting to work on the aircraft under the working name of An-188,” the Antonov president said.
According to him, three An-148 and ten An-158 aircraft are currently in the Antonov serial production workshops at different stages of completion.
The president of the state enterprise said that for the time being COVID-19 pandemic complicates the work of Antonov, but plans are implemented as scheduled.
“As soon as I tried to increase the number of employees, the number of COVID cases immediately increased,” Los said, adding that the chief engineer of the enterprise had recovered from coronavirus.
