Russia's President Vladimir Putin has thrown his weight behind a RUB85bn ($1.5bn) investment in the new version of Russia’s commercial passenger jet SSJ100 proposed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Kommersant daily said on March 26 citing unnamed sources.

Previously in February Russian privately owned airline S7 put in an order for 100 SSJ100 Russian-made “super jets” in the first large commercial order for the medium-range passenger to be developed by Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Despite the economic collapse and slow recovery of the country, aviation remains on of Russia’s strong suits thanks to the heavy investment in the Cold War. The government is hoping to create a new modern industry that can compete with the likes of Boeing and Airbus on the basis of a technology that it is actually good at.

Having said that the SSJ100 is inferior in performance to foreign planes: their average flying time in Russia until 2016 was no more than four hours a day vs Airbus and Boeing’s nine hours a day, as reported by Vedomosti. The reasons are more frequent breakdowns and long delivery times for spare parts. But on the plus side the planes are significantly cheaper than their US and European rivals.

The SSJ100 is undergoing a serious refit that will incorporate many military aviation developments for the 75-seat version, and the issue with the delivery terms for spare parts will be resolved.

Now reportedly the new version of the plane will be bought by the Ministry of Defence and Rossiya airline (a subsidiary of Russia’s national carrier Aeroflot), according to Kommersant. A deal for About 30 and 10 jets, respectively, is reportedly under discussion.

The SSJ100 operating company was supposed to break even in 2017, but reported $20mn of losses instead. The company needs at least 40 aircraft sales per year to break even, people close to the UAC previously told Vedomosti, which would be exactly the amount reportedly ordered by Rossiya and the Ministry of Defence. The best two years so far saw the sale of 37 and 34 planes in 2014 and 2017 respectively.