Aeroflot converted 90 MC-21-310 aircraft into a firm order on September 12, 2026, raising the Russian flag carrier's hard backlog for the type from 18 to 108 airframes. Aeroflot signed the contract at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, with Russian President Vladimir Putin participating via video link.

The package includes a 22-year service agreement between Aeroflot and Rostec, the state-owned holding that builds the MC-21 through its United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) subsidiary. The service deal covers flight simulators, crew training and maintenance. Aeroflot had already telegraphed that it would be the type's main customer; what changed on September 12 was the conversion of intent into contract.

How does the new contract fit earlier commitments?

The 2022 Letter of Intent between Aeroflot and Rostec covered 210 aircraft. By 2025, public reporting placed the figure at 198. Through September 2026, only 18 of those aircraft had sat in the firm column.

The September 12 deal converts roughly half of the 198-unit LOI baseline into a firm contract, the biggest single move yet on a programme that has spent most of its life in the aspirational column of press releases. The remaining 90 aircraft outside this deal, the gap between 108 firm orders and the 198-unit target, carry no disclosed delivery schedule. That gap has narrowed from 180 to 90 airframes in a single transaction.

When does Aeroflot receive the airframes?

Delivery begins in 2029 with 14 units. Another 18 follow in 2030, 24 in 2031 and the final 34 in 2032, totalling the 90 newly firmed aircraft. The cadence averages about 15 airframes a year, but the schedule is heavily back-loaded into 2032.

For a single Russian assembly line feeding a single launch customer, delivering 34 aircraft in one calendar year will require a meaningful step-change from current output. The 22-year service arrangement extends coverage on the entire firm fleet through at least 2051, well past the last airframe's scheduled arrival.

Is the type certified?

No. The MC-21 first flew in 2017 but has not received type certification, so the 2029 entry-into-service target remains a contractual projection rather than an operational reality.

The MC-21-310 variant that Aeroflot receives replaces Pratt & Whitney's PW1400G engines, the type's original powerplant, and a large share of other Western-supplied components with Russian-made alternatives. That re-engineering accounts for the programme's multi-year slippage and remains the principal risk to the disclosed timetable.

Until regulators certify the airframe, the jets scheduled for delivery between 2029 and 2032 exist only as paper commitments.

What changes for the narrowbody fleet?

The MC-21-310 sits in the single-aisle medium-haul class. Adding 90 aircraft over four years would shift the carrier's fleet balance materially toward domestically-built and domestically-serviced hardware, bundling airframe, training and MRO under one state-owned counterparty.

The 22-year service contract transfers long-term support responsibility to Rostec rather than to third-party MRO providers. For a launch customer that has already trimmed its narrowbody ambitions twice in four years, locking in lifetime support at the point of manufacture reduces exposure to aftermarket supply gaps.

The MC-21-310's medium-haul sizing puts it on Russian domestic trunk routes and the short international sectors that frame the carrier's network.

Forward outlook

Three items remain unresolved as of the September 12 announcement: the MC-21-310's certification date, the achievable production rate of fully Russian-configured airframes, and any further conversion of the 90 remaining LOI units to firm orders.

The contract is intent cast in airframes; the first revenue flight of the -310 variant will be the binding milestone.