The CEO of Russia’s flagship carrier, Aeroflot, said the government needs to regulate the share of domestic and foreign aircraft in order to prop up its ambitious domestic manufacturing plans and overcome wartime sanctions.
Aeroflot’s fleet of Airbus and Boeing planes has been hit by a slew of incidents after the U.S. and EU banned the supply of aircraft and components to Russia over the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
That summer, Russia announced plans to build more than 1,000 civilian aircraft by 2030. In the three years since, the number of aircraft to roll off production lines remained in the single digits amid delays and manufacturing challenges.
Aeroflot CEO Sergei Alexandrovsky told the Kommersant business newspaper that the airline has adapted to the sanctions.
“We’ve significantly adjusted and improved our forecasts. I don’t rule out that we’ll be able to further raise our forecast over time,” he said.
Aeroflot’s confidence stems from the mutual understanding with Russia’s aviation industry that “we need an efficient fleet of aircraft currently being developed,” Alexandrovsky said.
“Even if opportunities open to access international markets and supplies of foreign aircraft, the ratio of Russian and Western aircraft should be fairly strictly regulated at the state level,” he told Kommersant.
He acknowledged “growing pains” with domestic civilian aircraft, but said they could be “smoothed out” by gradually phasing in the new fleet of Yakovlev MC-21 and Superjets.
“After all, we won’t get 100 new planes right away,” he told Kommersant, also admitting that other airlines could balk at the protectionist proposals given the prevalence of Boeing and Airbus aircraft in their fleet.
“But whether they like it or not is not an issue,” he said. “At stake is the future of Russia’s aviation industry and the return on investments that the state has made into making new modern domestic aircraft.”
“We absolutely believe that our industry will be able to meet the high standards it has set for itself.”
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