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Russia's airline industry is reeling under Western sanctions. Aeroflot, the country's largest airline, now even flies to Iran for repairs. At home, there are not enough spare parts in stock for the (usually Western) planes.

Russia therefore has to seek help from friendly nations, such as Iran, India or African countries.

The gist: As a result of the war in Ukraine, several Western governments severely restricted the Russian airline industry. Flying to and from European or North American destinations was made impossible, but access to spare parts from Western manufacturers was also blocked.

Since most Russian airlines, like the rest of the world, fly Airbus or Boeing aircraft, the sector soon found itself in a dire situation. Thus, airlines have to cannibalize their own aircraft, in order to provide spare parts for other planes.

In the news: A flight to Tehran should be the solution, for an Airbus passenger plane of Aeroflot.

  • For the first time in place, Aeroflot must travel abroad to have one of its aircraft serviced. So reports investigative medium , based on information from Russian media group RBC. The news was also confirmed to RBC by an Aeroflot spokesman.
  • Specifically, an Airbus A330-300 wide body, of which Aeroflot has ten examples, took off from Moscow on April 5, . The aircraft has landing gear problems, and must be repaired in Iran. To do so, Aeroflot struck a deal with Mahan Air, an Iranian airline that flies the same aircraft.
  • Landing gear repairs were previously always done by the Hong Kong company HAECO (Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company). Since the sanctions, it has been almost impossible to pay this company, as Russia was excluded from the Swift international banking system. Presumably, therefore, HAECO decided to abandon the deal, which was in 2021.

Sign on the wall? Russia is becoming increasingly desperate to give its aviation sector any viability. By all means, it is doing its best to keep up appearances.

  • "I am sure it is not more dangerous to fly," Alexander Neradko, the boss of Russia's Rosaviatsiya aviation agency, lulled as recently as Feb. 1, in an interview with Russia's state news agency TASS. Reality, however, contradicts him. In fact, in the second half of 2022, the number of aircraft accidents in Russia rose sharply, compared with the first half of the year. And the trend is continuing: in January 2023 alone, eight incidents of faltering landing gear took place.
  • The reason for this is not far to seek: Russia knocks on the door of friendly nations, such as Iran, India or African countries, for spare parts. These are then not even inspected, but simply purchased and transferred to Russia.
  • On top of that, these are often "white products": reselling official parts is no longer possible (which can be controlled by the manufacturer and Western governments). Therefore, countries sell homemade parts to Russia. This means that airline crews often do not even know how something is made, let alone how it behaves when used intensively.

Aside: Russia does get creative in obtaining new aircraft. Although its own production does not yet seem to be for tomorrow.

  • After the introduction of Western sanctions, Russia decided to retaliate. It confiscated $10 billion worth of aircraft (more than 400 of them). These were leased by Russian companies from international companies, and so are now in Russian hands. However, these planes can only fly to friendly countries; otherwise they may be confiscated.
  • Late last December, Moscow also passed a law allowing . Airlines are allowed to take apart aircraft in order to have spare parts for other aircraft. The law also allows the application of non-original foreign parts; which is already happening to a large extent, with accompanying problems.
  • Finally, Russia wants to eventually replace Boeings and Airbuses with its own aircraft. This is proving very difficult: its own industry still too often uses Western components, such as computer chips or electronics. At the same time, it does not have the ability to scale up production to the point where foreign purchases become unnecessary.

Underlying: Western sanctions are also cutting Russia's budget extra via its airlines.

  • Aeroflot, Russia's largest airline and majority government-owned, has been hit hard by the sanctions. In 2019, the airline still flew 123 million people, with 43 percent of passengers traveling internationally. Most of its revenue was therefore earned in this segment.
  • Fast forward to 2022. The entire Russian airline industry collapses: all airlines combined transport 95 million passengers that year, 90 percent of whom take a domestic flight (read: an often shorter and cheaper one). The Russian government then additionally subsidized the sector, otherwise the number of passengers would have dropped even to 74 million. So calculated the American think tank .
  • In 2022, the Russian government thus spent $4.5 billion in subsidies for the sector. This hefty sum went to reducing fuel costs for airlines (the government matched) and buying additional shares of Aeroflot, among other things. Before the war, the government held 51 percent of the shares; by now it would be around 74 percent.
  • At the same time, the Russian government was already outlining a flight plan, where the industry should be by 2030. With sanctions in mind, 90 percent of flights should be domestic. These flights are as much as two to three times less profitable than international travel. This means Russian airlines will have to turn even more to the government for support; something Moscow could do without at a time of impending crisis.

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