Russia will start within the next six months Commercial production of a new Russian short-haul passenger airliner. The Managing Director Sergei Ilyushenkov of the Tupolev joint-stock company has said that the Tu-334, including its business-class version would also be assembled at the Kazan aircraft plant and this project will be funded by private investor.

This project started in the early 1990s, but its progress speed was too slow due to funding problems. A prototype was displayed in 1995, but it was little more than a mock-up with few systems installed.