Airlines in Russia face technical trouble due to sanctions

RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS - In Brief 14 Aug 2023 by Alex Teddy

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On August 14 Red Wings Airlines had to delay a flight from Turkey to Russia for a second day due to a breakdown. The airline said that it has three Boeing 777 planes, and two of them are unflyable at the same time. Turkey is the only NATO country that has placed no restrictions on flights to and from Russia. Airlines in Russia largely rely on aircraft from Airbus and Boeing. Since March 2022 these airlines have not been able to buy spare parts or have the planes serviced. Airlines are having to cut corners on safety. Astonishingly there have been no serious accidents. Aeroflot and other airlines have been able to keep flying because they have lost many of their foreign destinations and therefore fly fewer air miles. They cannot fly to or over EU countries, NATO countries (except Turkey), Japan, Australia and South Korea. That is 40 countries in total. They have been able to cannibalize unused planes for spare parts.  In 2022 Russian airlines flew 95 million passengers. That was a 14% YoY decrease. Bear in mind that 2021 was a bad year because COVID was still on. 90% of the flights were to domestic destinations, which is much higher than before the war. No airline in Russia has gone bust since the war started. This is impressive. The sanctions have had less impact than the West hoped. Sanctioned items include copper wires, bolts, graphite, screws and engine starters.  In May 2023 The New York Times published a study showing that from May to December 2023 over 5,000 sanctioned aircraft items were shipped from the US to Russia via third countries. These were mostly the UAE, Turkey and China.  Russia imported USD 3.45 billion of planes and parts in 2021 but only USD 245 mi...