In Russia, due to problems with spare parts caused by sanctions, more than a third of long-haul aircraft needed for flights to the Far East and abroad are not in operation, writes “Kommersant”. According to its calculations, of the 93 foreign wide-body passenger airliners remaining in the country, less than 60 are in service. The rest are either undergoing long-term maintenance or are idle. Finding engines and components for such aircraft is difficult: they make up only about 16% of the global fleet, which not only exacerbates the shortage of spare parts, but also makes them more expensive. At the same time, attempts to repair the engines of wide-body airliners in Iran, where the chassis are currently being repaired, have not yielded results, sources of the publication noted.
Due to the current situation, even the country’s largest carrier, Aeroflot, is forced to redistribute resources. The company has expanded its agreement on “wet leasing” with iFly and brought in a fourth Airbus A330 with a crew to compensate for the out-of-service aircraft. Previously, the carrier had already received three such aircraft. One of them, according to the publication, ceased to be in service due to an engine failure at the end of 2025. In total, the Aeroflot group has 59 wide-body aircraft: 41 for the carrier itself and 18 for its subsidiary company “Russia”. Of these, 17 are undergoing technical maintenance, with some being idle for more than a year, including four B-777s and five B-747s. Similar problems are observed at AzurAir, “North Wind”, “Ikar”, Red Wings, and Utair (The Moscow Times).
