Russia’s largest airline, Aeroflot, hopes to complete the purchase of five used Boeing 737 freighters that it intends to cannibalize for spare parts. The move will assist the carrier in keeping its own 737 fleet airworthy, as Western sanctions mean that sourcing spare parts for Boeing and Airbus aircraft in Russia is becoming increasingly challenging.
According to reports in the Russian state media, Aeroflot is negotiating the purchase of the five Boeing 737-800BCF cargo planes from their insurers that are deployed with the Volga-Dnepr Group under its subsidiary, Atran Airlines. According to ch-aviation, the carrier has a fleet of six of this type, with an average fleet age of 21.9 years, although all six are currently listed as stored at either Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport (VKO) or Sheremetyevo Airport (SVO).
According to reports, the aircraft are all on the Bermuda civil aircraft register but had their certificates of airworthiness withdrawn once sanctions were imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The planes were at the time owned by Irish-based leasing firm AerCap but given their age and worth, the leases were canceled and ownership passed to their insurance companies. The aircraft are reportedly worth around $8 to $9 million or eight to nine billion Russian Roubles.
While the rights to their use belong to the structure of Atran, a subsidiary of Volga-Dnepr Group, Aeroflot intends to negotiate the transfer of ownership of the aircraft and reach a settlement agreement with the aircraft’s insurers to take over the ownership of the planes. As the aircraft are already in Russia and on the books of a Russian airline entity, Aeroflot hopes that negotiations surrounding the purchase of these aircraft will fall outside any sanctions regime.
According to expert opinions quoted by Russian media outlet Kommersant, Aeroflot’s chances of agreeing on a settlement with insurers for these aircraft are much higher than those of Atran, which is largely inactive at the current time.
Should the insurers agree to any such deal taking place, full ownership of the five 737 freighters would subsequently transfer to Aeroflot outright. It is thought most likely that any useable parts salvaged from the aircraft would be used to keep the 42-strong fleet of Boeing 737-800s that is operated by Aeroflot’s low-cost subsidiary Pobeda Airlines airworthy.
According to sources quoted by the Kommersant newspaper, Aeroflot is simply looking to use the aircraft as a source of spare parts, and there is no intention to convert them back into passenger-carrying configurations. All five aircraft were originally delivered as passenger planes to carriers such as Ryanair and ATA Airlines (now defunct) and were later converted into freighter variants. However, the sources said that converting them back into passenger planes would be “unreasonably expensive.”
Spares shortages continue
With sanctions making the procurement of parts for Western-built aircraft increasingly difficult for Russian-based carriers, over the past two years, they have been forced to employ unconventional processes to keep their Boeing and Airbus fleets active, while Russian-based manufacturers such as Tupolev and Sukhoi ramp-up production of domestically produce civil aircraft to meet demand from the country’s airlines.
While these carriers are banned from flying to many countries, domestic networks are being maintained as well as international routes to destinations such as Dubai, Turkey, Egypt, and others.
In the past, Aeroflot has reportedly cannibalized several of its Western aircraft such as its Airbus A350s to keep others flying, while it has also instructed Russian manufacturing business Rosatom to start making replica Airbus and Boeing parts. Another Russian carrier, S7 Airlines, has also been making its own replacement engine fan blades used in CFM engines that power its Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 fleets.
Additionally, recent changes have been made to Russia’s air transport regulations meaning that Russian carriers can now enter into leases with domestic leasing companies for Western-built aircraft. This has come about after such leasing firms acquired some Western-built aircraft from insurers. Most recently, it was announced that Aeroflot had agreed terms for the wet-lease for three Airbus A330s from Moscow-based charter carrier iFLY.
Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine War in 2022, Aeroflot is said to have acquired over 100 Western-built commercial aircraft, either to be used for commercial operations or to be cannibalized as spare parts, as is the case with this latest announcement regarding the Boeing 737 freighters.