OREANDA-NEWS  The Baikal aircraft should be on line by the end of 2025, work is currently underway on its configuration and cost, Acting Deputy Prime Minister - Presidential Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District and candidate for this position Yuri Trutnev said.

"The Baikal aircraft is being built. Together with the Ministry of Industry, we are actively engaged in this, trying to make it competitive in terms of equipment and price - everything is not simple there, but by the end of 2025 Baikal should be on the line," Trutnev said during a speech in the State Duma.

In January, the head of the Ministry of Regional Development, Alexey Chekunkov, reported that the production of the Baikal aircraft could begin in the next two years, and in November 2023 he stated that the total cost of the Baikal aircraft would exceed 200 million rubles. At the end of September 2023, Trutnev himself reported that, according to preliminary estimates, Baikal will be put into operation in about a year and a half. According to previously published information from the State Transport Leasing Company (STLC), it is planned that the aircraft will replenish the Aurora fleet in 2026-2030 and will be made in various configurations for passenger, transport, air safety, sanitation and others, replacing the obsolete An-2.