Russia's state-owned aircraft manufacturer United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) can relaunch production of Ilyushin Il-96 and Tupolev Tu-214 jets as passenger planes if required, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov said on Wednesday.
The quadjet Il-96 carried out its maiden flight on 28 September 1988 and made its commercial debut on 29 December 1992 with the Russian flag carrier Aeroflot. The Il-96-300 has a standard passenger capacity of 262 seats in a two-class configuration with 18 seats with a seat pitch of 54 inches (140 cm) and 244 seats with a pitch of 32 inches (81 cm), of…