The head of Aeroflot, Russia’s national airline, stated that the government must regulate the balance of domestic versus foreign aircraft to support its ambitious plans for local manufacturing and to deal with the sanctions imposed during wartime.
Aeroflot’s fleet, which includes Airbus and Boeing aircraft, has been affected by numerous challenges after the U.S. and EU prohibited the delivery of planes and parts to Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
During the summer of that year, Russia unveiled a goal to construct over 1,000 civilian aircraft by 2030. However, in the subsequent three years, the output has remained in single digits due to production delays and difficulties.
Aeroflot’s CEO, Sergei Alexandrovsky, explained to the Kommersant business outlet that the airline has made necessary adjustments to cope with the sanctions. “We’ve made considerable revisions and enhancements to our projections. I don’t discount the possibility of further increasing our forecast in the future,” he noted.
His optimism is based on the shared understanding within Russia’s aviation sector regarding the necessity for an effective fleet of aircraft that is currently under development. Alexandrovsky emphasized, “Even if we gain access to international markets and foreign aircraft supplies, the ratio of Russian to Western aircraft should be tightly managed at the state level.”
He acknowledged the “growing pains” associated with the domestic civilian aircraft but expressed confidence that they could be “smoothly integrated” through a gradual introduction of the new Yakovlev MC-21 and Superjet fleets.
“Realistically, we won’t acquire 100 new planes immediately,” he admitted to Kommersant, recognizing that other airlines might resist these protectionist measures due to their reliance on Boeing and Airbus models.
“However, their preferences are not the priority here,” he stated. “What matters is the future of the Russian aviation industry and the returns on investments that the state has made in developing new modern domestic aircraft.”
“We firmly believe that our industry can meet the high standards that it has established for itself.”
