Russian airlines lost 58 aircraft in one year due to sanctions and accidents

Russian airlines had to retire 58 passenger aircraft in 2024.

Source: Dmitry Yadrov, head of the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency Rosaviatsiya, as reported by Russian news agency Interfax

Details: Yadrov explained that this was caused by accidents and the impossibility of repairing the aircraft. Currently, airlines have 1,138 aircraft and 920 helicopters, Yadrov clarified.

As The Moscow Times notes, Russian civil aviation has faced strict sanctions following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The US, EU and other countries banned the supply of spare parts and ready-made aircraft to Russia, while Boeing and Airbus stopped providing technical support for existing aircraft. Specifically, the planes have been left without regular checks, such as the C Check, which manufacturers perform every one and a half to two years, and deeper D Checks, which are carried out every 6–12 years.

As a result, domestic airlines had to repair Western-made planes on their own, resorting to "cannibalisation" – dismantling one aircraft for parts to repair another.

Meanwhile, two-thirds of the Russian airline fleet consists of foreign-made planes, which account for 90% of domestic passenger transport. Another 150 planes are SSJ-100s, which are also heavily reliant on Western components.

Background: 

• Russian business representatives met with Robert Agee, the President and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, to discuss the lifting of sanctions in certain sectors of the economy. Specifically, the discussion focused on civil aviation, the supply of spare parts and components, and aircraft maintenance.

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