Because of the sanctions, Aeroflot sent the plane for repairs to Iran for the first time

For the first time in its history, the Aeroflot airline sent a plane for repair to Iran. This happened because of the sanctions imposed on Russia after the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. RBC writes about this with reference to two sources. The representative of the carrier confirmed it.

Aeroflot sent an Airbus A330-300 to Tehran on April 5. There, it will be serviced by specialists of the largest Iranian carrier Mahan Air, the main purpose of which is to repair the landing gear struts.

The representative of “Aeroflot” stated that the Mahan Air company “has the necessary material base, certificates and vast experience, the provider performs maintenance with a high level of quality.”

As RBC clarifies, maintenance in Iran was discussed for several months. Previously, Aeroflot turned to the Hong Kong aircraft maintenance group HAECO for these purposes.

As of April 1, there were 178 Airbus and Boeing aircraft in the Aeroflot fleet.

• At the end of February 2022, after the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the USA, the European Union and other countries imposed restrictions on the flights of Russian airlines. The EU banned the export to Russia of goods and technologies used in the aviation and space sectors, as well as the insurance and maintenance of goods related to these industries.

• In mid-June, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China Zhang Hanhui stated that China is ready to supply Russian airlines with aircraft spare parts. A month later, Russia signed an agreement on the supply of equipment and aircraft maintenance with Iran. However, experts are skeptical of this document, since Iran itself is under sanctions and operates a very old air fleet, and will not be able to produce parts for modern aircraft that are used in Russia, so spare parts will have to be transported through “grey” schemes through third countries.
• At the end of December 2022, the Russian government legalized the so-called “cannibalization” of aircraft – it allowed the removal of spare parts from some aircraft to repair others. The Russian authorities also allowed the installation of non-original foreign parts on foreign aircraft that remained in Russia. Andrey Patrakov, the founder of RunAvia’s flight safety service, believes that foreign counterfeit goods may begin arriving in Russia.