Airlines in the Russian Federation are asking to extend the service life of the 50-year-old An-24 and An-26

Regional airlines are asking to extend the service life of An-24 and An-26 aircraft, the average age of which in Russia is 50 years. “Interfax” writes about it. So far, there is no adequate replacement for them.

The state of regional and local air transportation was discussed at a round table in the Federation Council. The representative of the Angara airline, Sergey Zorin, said that a quarter of the An-24 and An-26 fleet in Russia will cease to fly in less than five years. These are machines with a release date from 1962. Now, of the 150 regional Soviet-made aircraft, more than half (95-98) are represented by the An-24 and An-26.

According to him, these planes began to use up the resource faster due to the redistribution of traffic from foreign liners to Russian ones. Among other reasons, he pointed to a very expensive overhaul (about 200 million rubles), as well as the lack of access to bulletins of Ukrainian production for extending the life of these aircraft. The main problem is that the only engine repair plant, Aramilsky Plant, cannot cope with the flow of orders.

At the same time, new Russian aircraft cannot replace the old fleet yet. The Il-114 is not a full-fledged replacement for the An-24, and the first 10 TVRS-44 aircraft will appear no earlier than 2027, Zorin said. At the same time, the price of the TVRS-44 (more than 2 billion rubles) is comparable to the price of jet medium-haul aircraft, which are 3-4 times larger in capacity.

The extension of the An-24 and An-26 resource was also proposed by the development director of “Polar Airlines” Sergey Antsiferov.

Deputy General Director of “IrAero” Sergey Krupnov also noted that the main problem for the An-24 is aircraft engines. He also fears the possible suspension of flights of the existing fleet of Sukhoi Superjet aircraft.

After the start of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, the European Union banned the delivery of aircraft and spare parts to Russia, as well as their maintenance and insurance. The USA restricted the export of aviation industry goods and imposed sanctions on airliners from the fleets of Aeroflot and other Russian airlines.