Western sanctions, Russian airlines have begun to disassemble airliners to recover spare parts

Western sanctions against Moscow are hitting the aviation sector hard, while airliners are cannibalized to recover spare parts by now no longer available for purchase from abroad. In particular, those of the state company Aeroflot, whose fleet is made up of 80% of US Boeing and European Airbuses, but Russian-made Sukhoi Superjets are also heavily dependent on Western components. In this way, Russia will be forced to fly fewer and fewer planes and to severely reduce its presence in the sector.

Western sanctions, imposed on Moscow after its aggression and invasion of Ukraine, have not only blocked the purchase of spare parts, but also the possibility for Russian airlines to carry out maintenance operations in Europe or the United States. For this, the operators were forced to limit the number of flights and disassemble some planes to recover the parts to be used in case of breakdown or for the regular maintenance of aircraft.

Currently, as reported by Reuters, a newly bought Airbus A350 and a Sukhoi Superjet 100 would be stuck on the ground to be disassembled, while other parts would have already been taken from some Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s. According to Reuters calculations, based on Flightradar24 data, about 15% of Aeroflot’s planes have remained on the ground since July, while three of the company’s seven Airbus A350s have been reported to have been stationary for more than three months. The practice of removing parts from one aircraft to fly another, although relatively rare, is most often linked to financial difficulties and it has never occurred on such a scale to that of the vast cannibalization planned in Russia to deal with the impact of sanctions.

Moreover, already over the next few months the situation is bound to get worseas new generations of civilian jets need constant upgrades, as many parts have limited lifetimes, and keeping Airbuses and Boeings stationed in Russia in service will be increasingly difficult without the components andexpertise western.

The disassembled planes may actually be operational again, provided the removed pieces are restored, but even then it is not certain that they will be able to meet the safety standards necessary to return to fly in global markets. In addition to civil aviation, Western sanctions have also hit part of the Russian military fleet, especially Q series bomberswhose maintenance was carried out abroad.

However Russia is unlikely to be able to recover the necessary spare parts, even through Asian or Middle Eastern companies, because they fear the risk of sanctions secondary against them by the West. Each piece, in fact, has its own unique serial number and the final buyers must be communicated to Boeing and Airbus, before receiving the spare parts, therefore, if the documents were to report as the final buyer a Russian airline it is likely that no one will want to accept. to make the sale: “neither China, nor Dubai” is always read on Reuters.