Aging Russian Air Fleet: Airlines Wait, Officials Make Promises, No Planes

The crash of a 49-year-old An-24 in the Amur region has once again raised the issue of flight safety in Russia: as the years go by, airline fleets, unless they are based on Superjets, inevitably become obsolete.

By the end of 2024, the average age of S7's aircraft reached 12.4 years. And the aging continues: its fleet does not have any domestic SSJ-100s, and Boeing and Airbus deliveries have long ceased. But, according to Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev, everything will soon change and passengers will have the opportunity to fly on new aircraft.

— Today we visited an aircraft manufacturing plant producing Tu-214. This is an aircraft that will be in demand. There are already customers for it. S7 has announced that it is ready to order up to 100 aircraft.

The intention to buy new airliners is great. But desire alone is not enough. At a minimum, you need the ability to produce them. And there are problems with that.

It was originally planned that airlines would receive the first updated and import-substituting Tu-214 in 2024. In 2025, airlines were expecting four airliners, in 2026 - seven, and in 2028-2030, ideally, 28 aircraft should be produced annually.

But, as often happens, something went wrong and the deadlines were delayed. In February 2025, Industry Minister Anton Alikhanov promised that the first deliveries were scheduled for the end of this year.

And again, the promises did not come true. In June 2025, the head of UAC Vadim Badekha said in an interview that commercial airlines would see the first Tu-214s only in 2026.

However, these plans are also up in the air. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin only gave the order in mid-July to determine the delivery dates for the new aircraft.

— It is necessary to establish specific deadlines for each type of aircraft, including import-substituting versions of the well-known Tu-214 and Il-96-300 models.

Let's say this time it will be possible to establish real deadlines for the appearance of new aircraft and they will be observed. And passengers will be able to test the Tu-214 in 2028 - that is when, according to Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, serial production of up to 20 aircraft per year should begin.

And the first copies of the new old aircraft, originally from the 80s of the last century, will be distributed among government agencies - Vadim Badekha warned about this .

— Regarding the Tu-214, we have obligations to government customers, in particular the SLO "Russia", we fulfill their needs on a priority basis.

Several years after the revival of production of an aircraft that had previously been produced in our country, it suddenly became clear that there was nowhere and nothing to produce it from.

And the Kazan Aircraft Plant (KAZ) itself in its current form is not suitable for serial production of airliners. As Rostec previously noted , it was “sharpened” for the production of limited series for special customers. Simply put, there is neither equipment nor people for serial production of aircraft.

During Vladimir Putin's visit to the plant, Yuri Slyusar, the General Director of the United Aircraft Corporation, which includes KAZ, announced large financial investments in organizing serial production in the next two years.

— Our task is to move to serial production in the interests of Russian airlines. To this end, measures have been planned for the next few years. The financial decision has been made: 92 billion rubles have been allocated for two years.

You can't go far without money, but independent auto and aviation expert Alexey Zakharov doubts that financial investments will solve all problems.

— Kazan does not have the same production assembly lines as Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Irkutsk, Ulyanovsk. This is imported equipment, and the chances of getting it are slim. No one will sell it to us.

The prospects for the appearance of a significant number of Tu-214s remain vague. There are no production capacities or firm contracts. Last year, S7 Airlines only signed a memorandum of mutual cooperation, which provides for the delivery of up to 100 airliners. But to promise is not to marry.

So far, the Kazan Aircraft Plant has contracts for only 23 Tu-214 airliners, which are to be received by S7 and IrAero. But they may also end in nothing.

At this rate, the Tu-214 risks remaining an exotica forever, which can only be seen in the SLO "Russia", which serves the president, government and military leadership. And airlines will continue to wear out their aging Boeing and Airbus.