The Airbus A220 plane, the latest entrant into the aviation market from the Airbus side, is expected to get certified for operation in Russia by the end of 2019.

During MAKS 2019 air show, Julien Franiatte, the head of Airbus in Russia, revealed that Russian aviation authorities are actively cooperating with Airbus to complete all the works by the end of the current year, Russian Aviation Insider reports. The first one to be certified is Airbus A220-300 variant.

Airbus says that it sees potential of the A220 in the region and “is already in talks with a number of Russian carriers”.

As for now, there are two state-controlled leasing companies which in total have 20 A220-300s on order. These are the Ilyushin Finance Co (IFC) and State Transport Leasing Company.

Which Russian carrier will be the first to fly this aircraft still remains a question.