Aeroflot has announced the purchase of 323 Russian-made aircraft to renew its fleet. The decision was made due to the impossibility of acquiring aircraft and spare parts from Airbus or Boeing due to sanctions imposed by the West.
"That's a considerable number of new aircraft that require additional resources"said Sergey Alexandrovski, the new CEO of Aeroflot, in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The state-owned company will buy 210 Irkut MC-21s, albeit with Russian engines, which will not be assembled until 2024 or 2025; 73 Sukhói Superjets and 40 Tu-214s, he said. Aeroflot, which has been unable to fly to Western countries since the start of the war in Ukraine, now has just 183 aircraft in operational service, all Boeing and Airbus, except for five Superjets.
Vladimir Putin admitted that there are "many problems" in the industry, but that the government is trying to help all airlines, especially Aeroflot.
In the first half of this year, Aeroflot carried 7,9 million passengers, 5% less than in the first half of 2021, a decrease which in the case of international flights was 11,4%, down to 1,7 millions of travelers.