On April 2, 2019, a handover ceremony of the first serial Il-76MD-90A transport aircraft took place at the "Aviastar-SP" plant. It was attended by the general manager of Ilyushin company, Aleksei ROGOZIN and the commander of the military transport aviation of the Russian aerospace forces, General Lieutenant Vladimir BENEDIKTOV and other local government officials.
It was planned, that the military transport aviation will acquire 39 units of Il-76MD-90A, worth 2.14 billion. USD. However, at the end of March 2019, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Yuri BORISOV, informed during the press conference of the actual collapse of the contract. “The production of three aircraft is delayed by three to four months. In the course of the meeting in Moscow, we discussed in detail the causes of the situation. A solution has been adopted to establish a permanent interdepartmental commission between the Department of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Defense. Two ministerial representatives will hold joint meetings on a monthly basis, and oversee the production process. This is "manual management" but there is no other solution at the moment," BORISOV said. He further said that under new circumstances, the Department of Defense plans to purchase up to 100 Il-76MD-90A aircraft by 2030. BORISOV expects the plant to produce 6 units of these aircraft in 2019, at least 7 units in 2020, and to increase production level to 10-12 units per year from 2021.
Interest in the Il-76MD-90A aircraft was already manifested by ALGERIA and KAZAKHSTAN, but because of the low pace of production, this request can´t be satisfied. In addition, the Ministry of Defense will sign additional contracts for delivery of Il-78M-90A tankers and A-50U and A-100 early warning aircraft (AWACS) based on the Il-76MD-90A.