Russian airlines, including state-owned Aeroflot, are dismantling airliners to secure spare parts they can no longer buy abroad due to Western sanctions, four industry sources told Reuters.

Their dismantling follows recommendations the Russian government gave airlines in June to use some of the planes for spare parts so that the remaining foreign-made planes can continue to fly until at least 2025.

That’s because sanctions imposed on Russia after it started a war in Ukraine have prevented its airlines from receiving spare parts or carrying out maintenance in the West.

An almost new A350 aircraft, disassembled for spare parts

Aviation experts have previously said it is likely that Russian airlines will begin removing parts from their planes to keep some of their fleets operational, but these are the first concrete examples.

At least one Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet 100 and an Airbus A350 operated by Aeroflot are currently on the ground and being sorted out, a source familiar with the situation said. The source declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The Airbus A350 is almost new, the source said. Most of Russia’s aircraft fleet consists of Western passenger planes.

Equipment was also taken from some of Aeroflot’s Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s as the carrier needs more spare parts from those models for other Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s, the source said. The Russian Ministry of Transport and Aeroflot did not respond to requests for comment.

It’s only a matter of time before Russian planes are “cannibalized”

Russian-built Sukhoi Superjets are also heavily dependent on foreign spare parts. One engine has already been removed from one such plane to allow the other Superjet to continue flying, the first source said.

Of course, engines are often changed between aircraft and are typically supplied under separate contracts, industry experts explained. They are not considered part of the basic structure of the aircraft.

It is “only a matter of time” before Russian aircraft are “cannibalized,” a source in the Western aviation industry said.

Newer generations of aircraft – the A320neo, A350 and Boeing 737 MAX and 787 – have technology that must be constantly updated.

Even for Russia’s highly developed and competent engineering base, Western sources say it will be a “challenge” to keep modern aircraft in service at most a year after the sanctions take effect.

About 80% of Aeroflot’s planes are Boeing and Airbus

The practice of removing parts so that another aircraft can fly is known as turning decommissioned aircraft into “Christmas trees”.

Although this is relatively rare, it is most often related to financial difficulties and has never occurred on such a scale as the large-scale restructuring expected in Russia.

The airliners can operate again if the removed parts are put back in place, although this will not necessarily restore the tracking needed to return the planes to global markets.

Many parts have a limited lifespan that must be fixed.

Almost 80% of Aeroflot’s fleet consists of Boeings and Airbuses – it has 134 Boeings and 146 Airbuses, as well as almost 80 Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet-100s, according to the latest available data at the end of last year.

“This is going to hurt”

About 50 of Aeroflot’s planes – or 15 percent of its fleet, including planes blocked by sanctions – have not taken off since the end of July, according to a Reuters count based on data from Flightradar24.

According to Flightradar24, three of the seven Airbus A350s operated by Aeroflot, including one currently used as spare parts, have not flown for about three months.

On the other hand, the fact that Russian carriers are flying fewer routes due to Western sanctions means there are unused planes on the ground that could be scrapped, a second industry source said.

“Western manufacturers understand that almost all Superjets are operated in Russia,” said Oleh Panteleev, head of the Aviaport aviation analytical center.

“You could just stop manufacturing and shipping parts — and that would hurt,” he added.

Companies from Asia and the Middle East do not want to help Russia either

In the plan for the development of the Russian aviation industry until 2030, it is assumed that Russia may face the biggest problems with the Bombardier A350 and Q-series aircraft, since their maintenance is carried out abroad.

The recommendation of the Russian government provides for the “partial dismantling of parts of the aircraft fleet”, which will allow two-thirds of the foreign fleet to be kept in working condition until the end of 2025.

The main task will be to keep the engines and complex electronics in working order, Panteleev said: “It will be difficult for them to fix them.”

Aeroflot, once one of the world’s biggest airlines but now reliant on government support, fell 22 percent in the second quarter of this year from a year earlier, according to company data, after sanctions prevented it from flying to most Western directions

Securing supplies from countries that have not imposed sanctions on Russia is unlikely to help, as companies in Asia and the Middle East fear the risk of secondary sanctions against them from Western governments, the sources said.

“Each individual part has its own (unique) number, and if the documents show a Russian airline as the final buyer, no one will agree to supply, neither China nor Dubai,” said the first source, adding that all details must be brought to known to Boeing and Airbus before they are delivered to the end user.

(Photo by Aeroflot article © Pavlo Losevskyi | Dreamstime.com)

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