OREANDA-NEWS  The planned deadline for obtaining a type certificate for an import-substituted SSJ New aircraft with a PD-8 engine is December 2025, and every effort is being made to do this, the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation said.

"The planned deadline for obtaining a type certificate for the SSJ New import-substituted aircraft with a domestic PD–8 engine is December 2025. Other dates announced in the public field may relate to deadlines that take into account possible risks," the message says.

"Rosaviation, the aircraft developer and other participants in the certification process are making every effort to comply with the planned deadline for obtaining a type certificate for the aircraft," the Ministry of Transport added.

Earlier on Thursday, Andrey Ivanov, Deputy director of the Department of State Policy in the field of Civil Aviation at the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, told the Federation Council that certification of the import-substituted SSJ New was postponed to March 2026 due to the delay in certification of the PD-8 engine.

Rostec, in turn, said on Thursday that the aircraft would be certified on time, its deliveries to airlines are scheduled for 2026, and certification of the PD-8 engine is expected in the fall of 2025.

SSJ New is a short-range narrow-body aircraft, which is being created under the import substitution program for systems and components. The airliner will become another model in the family of currently operating Superjet aircraft.

On March 17, the Superjet aircraft made its first flight with a Russian PD-8 engine in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, thus flight tests of the engine as part of the aircraft began.