Russia’s commercial aviation industry is struggling to cope with demand from Russian travelers due to a lack of new aircraft driven by ongoing Western sanctions. While the country is attempting self-sufficiency with the development of home-produced aircraft, the majority of planes at Russian airlines are Western-made.
Russian airlines struggle to meet demand
According to a report from Reuters, Russian carriers have added just 11 new aircraft to their fleets in almost three years. In the year prior to its invasion of Ukraine, Russian airlines had taken delivery of 54 new aircraft, 30 of which were Boeing or Airbus and the remainder from Russian manufacturer Sukhoi. The country’s domestic aircraft production industry had been hoping to plug the gap left by Airbus and Boeing but has so far failed to step up and looks a long way off reaching President Putin’s goal of 1,000 domestic-made aircraft by 2030.
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It also can’t look to China’s domestic commercial aircraft as a solution, as these are equipped with Western-made engines. The lack of new aircraft has left Russian airlines unable to capitalize on a sharp increase in travel demand – driving this demand is Russia’s war effort, which has given many Russians higher wages to spend on traveling abroad. Aviation expert Oleg Panteleev told Reuters,
“Yesterday these people earned relatively little, now they have not just extra, but beyond extra, income relative to what they had, and many of them have … used this for a fully-fledged summer holiday.”
While domestic traffic is approaching pre-pandemic levels, international capacity is still way behind. Data shows a strong recovery in Russians holidaying abroad, with Egypt, Thailand and Turkey proving particularly popular destinations.
Russia isn’t just having trouble bringing new aircraft in; the country has struggled to maintain its existing Western fleet due to a lack of spare parts and other consequences of economic sanctions, including no technical support. The latest reports state that around half of Russia’s Airbus A320-family fleet has been grounded, and many of those that are in service are experiencing a much higher rate of technical failure due to a lack of proper maintenance and parts.
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Flight safety will be ensured through the “rearrangement” of serviceable spare parts, the head of Rosaviatsia says.
According to data from ch-aviation, almost 80% of the Russian commercial fleet is Western-made, but the country is hoping to flip this and achieve 80% Russian-made by 2030. The government has shelled out approximately $13 billion in loans and subsidies to keep the industry afloat, and it isn’t clear how long it can keep this up before airlines start going bankrupt.
New MC-21 due by 2026
Russia is still confident in its ability to produce domestic-made commercial aircraft despite the crippling effect of Western sanctions. The flagship aircraft of its domestic industry will be the Yakovlev MC-21, a narrowbody program launched way back in 2007 and Russia’s answer to the Boeing 737 or Airbus A320.
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The original design – the MC-21-300 – incorporated various Western parts, including Pratt & Whitney engines, but the sanctions forced Russia to switch to domestically produced parts. Its new variant, the MC-21-310, will use all domestic parts and is slated to enter production in 2026.