Russian airlines are slowly but surely running out of spare parts. The dismantling of the first machines, including an extremely young Airbus A350, has now begun. The parts obtained from this are to be installed in other aircraft in order to be able to keep them in the air.

The sanctions practiced by the United States of America and the European Union, among others, in response to the military attack against Ukraine also include that neither new aircraft nor spare parts may be delivered to the Russian Federation. This poses a supply problem for the operators of Western models, but also of the Sukhoi Superjet SSJ-100.

In the medium term, the Russian government wants to solve this by importing spare parts that were manufactured in Iran or China. They also want to manufacture certain components themselves and have already issued corresponding licenses to Russian companies for this purpose. However, the three projects are still at an early stage.

Due to an acute shortage of replacement parts, the first commercial aircraft now have to be used as spare parts donors. The Reuters news agency reports that at least one Sukhoi SSJ-100 and one almost brand-new Airbus A350-900 are being cannibalized accordingly. Furthermore, one is said to have already used numerous leased Airbus A320 and Boeing 737.

However, this cannot be a permanent solution because availability is limited. For this reason, the previously indicated supply solutions with Iran and China Ahead. In the medium term you want it You can also make copies of the required parts yourself. Rapid support is hoped for, particularly from Iran, which has many years of experience with “homemade” products. A corresponding agreement was made signed a few days ago.