Half of Airbus neo aircraft stopped flying in Russia: what happened

The most difficult situation has arisen for Russia’s largest private airline, S7.

Today, more than half of the entire Airbus A320neo and A321neo fleet is “parked” in the Russian Federation, Russian media reports .

It is noted that out of 66 aircraft of this family, 34 aircraft are idle. Moreover, about half of them may not return to flights in the future.

This situation has arisen due to difficulties with engine maintenance – carriers are forced to conserve the resources of the units.

The thing is that these planes have “advanced” but very difficult to maintain engines. Because of this, they cannot be repaired in Russia.

At the same time, it is also impossible to import engines to the Russian Federation due to sanctions and a general shortage on the market.

The situation is particularly difficult with aircraft equipped with American engines of the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G family. Other aircraft have LEAP type engines – with them there are also difficulties, although not as serious.

Currently, the A320/A321neo fleet accounts for approximately 10% of the entire foreign mainline fleet of the Russian Federation. However, experts do not expect that the difficulties with the family will critically affect the volume of air transportation in Russia.

However, for some airlines the situation may be truly threatening. Thus, according to the forecast, for S7 the failure of the A320/A321neo will mean a reduction in transportation by up to 15% by the end of next year.

(C)UNIAN 2024