The European Commission plans to prohibit sales of aircraft, spare parts as well as other related equipment to Russian airlines, as part of sanctions to be imposed amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced at the press conference on February 25, 2022.
Von der Leyen remarked that three quarters of Russia’s current commercial fleet are dependent on EU, US, and Canada built aircraft. Therefore, the sanction “will degrade the key sector of Russia’s economy and the country’s connectivity”. The measures are approved by the European leaders but are yet to come into effect.
Massive and targeted sanctions, agreed by EU leaders, will have severe consequences for Russia.
— European Commission (@EU_Commission) February 25, 2022
These sanctions cover:
The financial sector
The energy and transport sectors
A ban on the export of aircraft spare parts
Access to important technology
Visa policy pic.twitter.com/dp9ktDA8yP
The fleets of Russia’s three largest airlines are mainly comprised of Airbus and Boeing manufactured aircraft.
Russia’s flag-carrier, Aeroflot, has a total of 185 aircraft in its fleet, including 116 Airbus-manufactured, 59 Boeing-made, and only 10 Russian produced jets, as per Planespotters.net data. According to Airbus data, Aeroflot has 22 Airbus A350s on order, of which eight have already been delivered.
S7 – Siberia Airlines has a fleet of 105 aircraft, including 48 Airbus A320s, 16 Airbus A321s, three Airbus A319s, 21 Boeing 737s, and 17 Embraer ERJ-170 jets, Planespotters.net data shows.
Meanwhile, Ural Airlines has a fleet of 53 aircraft and all of them are Airbus-manufactured jets, according to Planespotters.net.
Russia’s aircraft manufacturer, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), has been trying to design and develop its own commercial aircraft in part to be less dependent from foreign models. However, the key projects are still in the development phase.