The Russian Federation has 76 aircraft left due to sanctions

Because of the sanctions introduced after last year’s invasion of Ukraine against the Russian aviation industry, Russia has 76 passenger planes left. This was stated by Transport Minister Vitaliy Savelyev to RBC.

According to him, Russia was “suddenly caught off guard”, and 76 aircraft that were abroad at technical parking lots, for maintenance or at airports, were arrested.

The planes of Russian airlines flying abroad to countries that joined the sanctions mainly belonged to foreign companies, they were leased from Russian air carriers.

Cases of seizure of airliners of Russian airlines were reported earlier, and for the first time, the number of aircraft left by airlines as a result of sanctions was named. According to Saveliev, 1,167 passenger airliners are currently in operation in Russia. A significant majority of them are of foreign production. After the introduction of sanctions, the leased aircraft were transferred to the Russian registry and insured by a Russian insurance company. As Saveliev put it bluntly then, “we took away someone else’s property.” In June of last year, the minister reported that Russian airlines continue to fly to 11 countries that have guaranteed that they will not arrest the planes.

There will be no direct air traffic between Russia and Western countries since February 2022 – the sanctions include a ban on flights of Russian aircraft to Western countries and vice versa. The Boeing and Airbus companies suspended the supply of spare parts to Russia and stopped the maintenance and support of aircraft of Russian airlines.

• Last September, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) reported the insufficient level of aviation safety in Russia. It is known that due to the lack of spare parts, Russian airlines are relaxing safety requirements. “Novaya Gazeta. Evropa” wrote that the number of air transport accidents in Russia in the last hour has doubled compared to the average level of the last five years, while the number of flights has decreased. In January 2023, the Russian government authorized the so-called cannibalization of aircraft, that is, their disassembly into spare parts for use in other aircraft of the same type.