Russian civil aviation continues to experience serious difficulties due to sanctions imposed by the West after the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Dmitry Yadrov reported in an interview with Interfax, in 2024 the country's airlines were forced to decommission 58 aircraft. The main reasons were the increasing frequency of aviation incidents and the impossibility of carrying out full repairs due to an acute shortage of spare parts. Today, carriers have 1138 aircraft and 920 helicopters at their disposal, but further reduction of the fleet remains a real threat. 

Sanctions imposed by the US, EU and other countries in 2022 have all but paralysed Russian airlines’ access to Western technology. Boeing and Airbus have stopped supplying components and providing technical support, depriving carriers of the ability to conduct mandatory aircraft inspections – the C Check, performed every 1,5 to 2 years, and the more thorough D Check, required every 6 to 12 years. With about 70% of the Russian airline fleet made up of foreign aircraft, accounting for up to 90% of domestic passenger traffic, the industry has found itself in a crisis situation. To maintain operations, carriers are forced to dismantle some of the aircraft for spare parts – a method known as “cannibalisation”. Even the domestic Sukhoi Superjet-100 (SSJ-100), which makes up about 150 units in the fleet, relies on imported components, exacerbating the problem. 

According to Kommersant, Russian airlines faced a record number of incidents in 2024: 11 engine failures were recorded from December to January, more than double the figures for previous months. Experts attribute this to the use of expired parts and the lack of certified maintenance. To circumvent sanctions, Russia is trying to establish the production of analogs of spare parts together with the state corporation Rosatom and the largest carrier Aeroflot. In August 2024, a plant for the repair of air conditioning and lighting systems for Boeing and Airbus opened, but its capacity does not yet cover the needs of the industry.