State-owned industrial holding Rostec believes that Airbus and Boeing aircraft "will never again be delivered to Russia", and that the country will from now rely entirely on locally-built aircraft, Reuters has reported.
"Foreign aircraft will drop out of the fleet [of Russian airlines]. We believe that this process is irreversible, and Boeing and Airbus planes will never be delivered to Russia," the holding said.
Rostec is the parent of UAC United Aircraft Corporation, the Russian holding that oversees all aircraft manufacturers, including Irkut (the manufacturer of the MC-21-300 and SSJ 100/95), Tupolev Design Bureau (the Tu-214), and Ilyushin Design Bureau (the Il-114-300). Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, EU and US sanctions banned the delivery of Western aircraft, spare parts, or any services (including aircraft leasing and maintenance) to the Russian aviation industry.
The ch-aviation fleets module shows that Russian carriers' Western order books are relatively limited and comprise nine A350-900s due for Aeroflot, fourteen A220-300s for Ilyushin Finance, twenty-eight B737-8s for UTair, and six B777-200Fs for Volga-Dnepr Airlines. The airlines were also due to take a significant number of aircraft from lessors. Both the manufacturers and lessors have already reassigned some of the delivery slots, recognising that deliveries to Russia will not be possible at least in the short term.
Since the sanctions were imposed, the Russian market has been pivoting to locally-built aircraft. Aeroflot Group recently placed an order for 339 UAC-made aircraft. Rostec aims to deliver 1,000 aircraft by 2030.
