Aeroflot, the national airline of Russia, announced on Monday that it plans to increase the number of passengers it will carry this year, despite an increase in incidents involving the safety of Russian planes, Reuters reported.

This was announced by the airline’s CEO, Serhii Alexandrovskyi, who said that Aeroflot aims to reach 50 million passengers in 2024, after 47.3 million passengers last year.

The goal now set by the management of Aeroflot is being achieved despite an increase in the number of incidents that have jeopardized the safety of passengers in Russia as a result of the fact that the European Union and other partner countries of Kyiv soon introduced sanctions against the export of components and maintenance services. the beginning of the war against Ukraine in 2022.

An extensive report published by Reuters back in August 2022, citing sources in the Russian aviation industry, revealed that air carriers in Russia had to resort to dismantling some aircraft in order to have the necessary spare parts to support their fleets. air

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

Aeroflot is running out of spare parts for its Western-made aircraft

Among the companies directly mentioned in the report was Aeroflot, given that nearly 80% of its planes are manufactured by Boeing or Airbus, the Western companies required to comply with sanctions imposed on the Russian aviation sector.

Before the war in Ukraine, Aeroflot operated 134 Boeing and 146 Airbus.

Since the middle of 2022, the number of serious incidents in Russian aviation has increased sharply, the nature of numerous failures is different, but the reason, according to experts, is the same: sanctions and the lack of quality control of parts that were currently bought from African partners, from India and other “friendly countries” without no parts certification.

Russian authorities say that Western sanctions on the supply of spare parts will not affect domestic aviation, and mention the experience of Iran, which would successfully overcome sanctions. At the same time, they forget to say that in Iran the restrictions have led to an increase in the number of accidents and plane crashes with victims.

In September 2022, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), part of the United Nations, awarded Russia a “red flag” on its safety performance audit page. This happened due to the fact that the deadline given by ICAO to Rosavia to eliminate the double registration of aircraft leased by Russian airlines has expired.

Last July, an Aeroflot plane flying from Sochi to Moscow suffered engine failure at an altitude of more than 11,000 meters, but eventually managed to land safely at Sheremetyevo Airport in the Russian capital.

Even Vladimir Putin has acknowledged the problems facing the Russian aviation industry

In October 2023, five passenger planes during a flight over the territory of Russia sent a ground alarm due to a failure of the plane’s electronic tracking system.

“Cherepovets-Moscow, Samara-St.Petersburg, Petrozavodsk-Moscow flights issued a ‘General Alarm’ code during the flight,” an industry source told TASS, later adding that Sabetta-Moscow and Petrozavodsk-St.Petersburg flights were also affected. .

A separate analysis published by Reuters last December found that Russia provided more than $12 billion in government subsidies and loans to keep its aviation sector afloat after Western sanctions imposed on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine halted the supply of key spare parts. and maintenance services. .

In March 2022, Airbus and Boeing stopped servicing and spare parts, and stopped providing maintenance to the national airline Aeroflot and other Russian airlines.

“Our fleet is extremely overloaded … with foreign-made aircraft,” even President Vladimir Putin admitted in comments made last December.

However, he announced that “we plan to produce more than 1,000 aircraft by 2030, our own aircraft. It requires work.”