Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov criticises situation in aircraft building industry

MOSCOW, September 22. Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov criticised on Thursday the development level of the Russian aircraft building industry. “I cannot say Russia is doing its best for occupying a proper place in the competitive world,” he said at a meeting of the cabinet of ministers, which is discussing the development strategy of the aircraft building industry.

“There is no need to dramatize the situation in the aircraft building industry. It should be viewed in a proper perspective, however. We all, as passengers and readers, know what the situation is like,” he continued. In his opinion, “the aircraft market is a highly competitive market. The world is rapidly advancing towards providing more safe and reliable services.”

“Many developments, including negative ones, took place over the past year, while the government was working on the development strategy of the aircraft building industry,” Fradkov stated.

Specifically, flights of Il-96-300 planes were suspended. Representatives of the Federal Assembly forwarded a number of messages to the Prime Minister, which expressed concern over the situation in the industry. In the opinion of Fradkov, all those problems are connected in this or that way with “a poor performance of individual plants and design offices.”, Itar-Tass reported.