Russia's United Aircraft Corporation managed to build only seven of the 108 passenger planes it planned to produce since 2022, the BBC reported on Dec. 12, underscoring the dire state of Russia's plane manufacturing sector.
The Russian aviation and aircraft manufacturing industries were heavily hit by the Western sanctions — imposed in response to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine — due to reliance on foreign components to build and maintain planes.
Russia sought to pivot toward domestic production. Its Comprehensive Program for the Development of the Air Transport Industry until 2030 envisioned producing 1,032 passenger aircraft between 2022 and the end of the decade.
This included 14 planes in 2022, 25 in 2023, and 69 this year. This plan was revised and postponed almost immediately due to lack of supplies, the BBC writes.
The United Aircraft Corporation, part of the state-owned conglomerate Rostec, built only seven SuperJet 100 airliners using pre-2022 stocks, the outlet reported, citing cross-checked data from unofficial statistics, aggregators, and the media. Russian producers also built two experimental planes for testing: the Il-96-400M and Il-114.
An undisclosed industry source told the BBC that the plan was not taken seriously within the aviation sector and served only to "calm the government's nerves."
The mounting crisis affects not only aircraft producers but also airline companies.
The Izvestia newspaper reported on Nov. 13 that about 30 Russian airlines, accounting for 26% of domestic passenger traffic, may go bankrupt in 2025. Only major airlines, including Aeroflot, Ural Airlines, and S7 Airlines, were able to buy back leased aircraft with funds from the National Welfare Fund.
Kateryna Hodunova
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