Western sanctions hit Russian aviation sector | DW News

Now, since the beginning of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, Moscow's commercial

aviation

industry has been greatly affected. Giants like Airbus and Boeing stopped supplying spare parts to Russia in March, so how is Russia's commercial

aviation

industry holding up more than nine months later? DW buyer Killian takes a closer look despite

sanctions

and disruption to the supply of critical components. Russian airlines continue to operate, although the number of passengers on domestic flights in Russia has decreased by 15 to 20 percent, not much has changed. In terms of flying airplanes, it was always going to take a little bit longer because of course there are reserves and spare parts and of course there are existing airplanes that could be cannibalized.

More than 800 modern Western-built passenger aircraft were flown by Russian commercial airlines before the outbreak of war, more than half of their flights operated on international routes, most of these flights were canceled by

sanctions

. International routes were very lucrative, one of the most important forms of income, the harsh interruption of this cash flow was very serious and on the other hand there was the aviation industry, it has become very difficult to supply spare parts to the planes that fly now, even before the war. Airlines in Russia face difficulties in obtaining spare parts. A pilot took this video a year ago. yellow sheets written with the letters i-n-o-p meaning inoperable the situation has worsened drastically since the war and Prestige projects such as the ms-21 and the Sukhoi 100 super jet both Russian-built airliners have an Achilles heel that they depend on in largely Western theory Rashetto joins us now as bureau chief at our DW studios in Riga Ayuri, so it's quite surprising that the roots of Russian aviation remain in place despite almost 10 months of sanctions.

How is that possible? Well, if you look at the Russian aviation industry it experienced a kind of shock immediately after the start of the war because Russian planes were no longer allowed to fly to the West overnight, at the same time as Abus and Boeing They ended their cooperation with Russia and despite the fact that almost all Russian aircraft came from Airbus and Boeing, but the fact that half of all Russian aircraft since then had to remain grounded, meaning that these aircraft could be used as spare parts . However, the loss of almost 50 percent of flight routes became a blessing for the Russian aviation industry, making it the most important thing for now for the Russians. is to maintain the domestic airlines and so far this is still doing well, so when we hear that domestic aviation is still doing well but spare parts are hard to come by or have to be cannibalized from older aircraft, surely there are some safety concerns, consider no, yes, sure.

The question is, of course, when the floor of the plane will be removed and used as a spare and how long it can last and replace safety. Repairs by Western companies. We know that Russia has kept all the planes, at least in the west, by decree. President Putin's, after all, are more than 500 aircraft worth more than 10 billion dollars. One Russian expert we spoke to called us simply because of a robbery. Iran was also a great hope for Russian aviation, the country has been living under sanctions for decades and has developed various methods. to circumvent them, but Iran uses aircraft from the 1970s and 1980s that are less dependent on software updates.

Ira Float, in particular, has equipped its fleet with very modern aircraft in recent years that apparently do not need to be repaired as quickly, but at the same time, because Russia uses very modern aircraft that rely on those same technologies, it will increasingly be more difficult to safely operate Western aircraft without computer updates and Russia itself hardly builds its own aircraft or at least not enough, so everything is fine for now. but it may not go well for long Yuri Rosetto head of the office of our DW pseudos in Riga thank you very much