Russia Plans €180 Million Factory to Build Aurus Business Jet Based on 30-Year-Old Tupolev Tu-324 Design

Aurus-Aero is developing a new business jet program based on the Tupolev Tu-324, an aircraft design dating back roughly 30 years that never entered series production. The program calls for a dedicated factory in the Ulyanovsk Special Economic Zone, with an estimated investment of 15.4 billion rubles, or approximately €180 million. About 13.2 billion rubles — roughly 85% of the total — is expected to come from loans, with a projected payback period of 70 months, or slightly more than five and a half years.

The planned factory will handle aircraft assembly, testing, maintenance and repair, with a target production rate of up to 25 aircraft per year. The primary variant is a 19-seat VIP configuration with a planned range of up to 7,000 kilometres, powered by Russian PD-8 engines. A larger 64-seat regional passenger version is also planned. Land has already been allocated to the site, and the project concept and business plan have been prepared. The project details were published in an investment-project catalog prepared for the 2026 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, and Regional Governor Alexey Russkich had announced the project earlier, in October 2025.

Aurus-Aero was founded in 2022 and initially registered in Kazan before moving to Moscow in 2023. The company moved its headquarters to Ulyanovsk in July 2026. Gazprom Tech became the owner of Aurus-Aero in September 2023. Estimates indicate that around 300 to 400 business aircraft are connected to the Russian market, of which approximately 160 are registered in Russia and as many as 240 are owned by Russian interests but registered abroad; the existing fleet consists of Western-built aircraft, including models from Bombardier and Gulfstream. An earlier Aurus Business Jet based on the Sukhoi Superjet 100 was presented at the Dubai Airshow in 2021 but did not reach series production.

A state-backed manufacturer reviving a 30-year-old, never-produced airframe design to seed a domestic business jet industry is a pattern seen where sanctions or supply restrictions cut a market off from established Western OEMs. Russia has never produced a dedicated business jet in series, and the current fleet connected to the Russian market — some 160 registered domestically and as many as 240 held abroad by Russian interests — is entirely Western-built, which is precisely the gap this program is designed to close.

Business jet programs of this kind typically hinge less on the announcement than on financing follow-through and engine maturity: here, 85% of the 15.4 billion ruble outlay depends on loans with a 70-month payback, and the aircraft depends on the domestically developed PD-8 engine reaching certification and production readiness. A prior attempt to launch an Aurus-branded jet off the Sukhoi Superjet 100 airframe was shown at Dubai in 2021 and never reached series production, which sets a direct precedent against which this program's progress will be measured.

The next markers worth tracking are whether the Ulyanovsk factory moves from allocated land and a business plan into actual construction, and whether the PD-8-powered 19-seat variant reaches a flying prototype rather than remaining a paper configuration.