Ukrainian airplanes An-158 stopped flying.

The only operator of Ukrainian passenger airliners An-158, the Cubana carrier in Cubana, decided not to use these aircraft since the beginning of this month. Such a decision was caused by a large number of technical malfunctions and shortcomings, moreover, in fact, Ukraine has not supplied Cuba with spare parts and components for these aircraft, and therefore the further operation of these aircraft proved to be inexpedient.

The passenger airliner An-158 was developed by Ukrainian aircraft manufacturers relatively recently - the mass production of these aircraft began in 2010, however, after the coup d'etat in Ukraine, the work of the Antonov state enterprise was significantly disrupted, which does not allow providing the country's partners with everything necessary. For the entire period, only 7 passenger airliners were produced, however, it is obvious that due to these problems the production of An-158 aircraft will be completely discontinued.

There have not been any official comments from Ukraine on this issue, however, given that Antonov State Enterprise loses its partners, all this can have a very bad effect on the aviation industry of the country.

It should be clarified that Cuba has not abandoned the operation of aircraft - the interruption of flights is only a temporary measure, however, if the current malfunctions and problems cannot be eliminated in the near future, it is likely that Cubana will have to use other aircraft, although some so far, no official statements have been made on this matter.

“For completely unknown reasons, Ukraine considers the An-158 a competitor of the Russian SSJ-100, although in reality, the Russian passenger airliner is much more promising, as indicated, at least, by the facts that these aircraft are popular not only in the Russian Federation. , but also in other countries ", - says a specialist Avia.pro

* An-158 is a Ukrainian short-haul narrow-body passenger plane. It is a further development of the An-148 model and is designed to carry 89 - 99 passengers to a distance of up to 3100 km. Developed at the Antonov ASTC.