Russia’s largest airline, Aeroflot, in collaboration with Rosatom, is planning to establish a production facility for manufacturing copies of original Airbus and Boeing aircraft parts, according to a report by The Moscow Times.
An Aeroflot representative stated that production of components for Airbus and Boeing aircraft is expected to commence in August. The planned facility will focus on producing parts for aircraft air conditioning systems, electrical supply and lighting systems, as well as components for emergency, oxygen, and fire safety equipment.
The representative mentioned that the Russian company Science and Innovations, a subsidiary of Rosatom, has already successfully completed a project for substituting imported air filters for the air supply and recirculation systems in Boeing and Airbus aircraft cabins. Aeroflot claims that the service life of these domestic equivalents exceeds the original filters by 20-25%.
Aeroflot assured that all Russian-made copies of original aircraft parts would be certified and approved by Rosaviatsiya, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency, according to local standards.
Oleg Panteleev, Executive Director of the Russian agency AviaPort, stated that Russian carriers do not need permissions from Western manufacturers to install these copied parts on Airbus and Boeing aircraft since they no longer fly to the US and EU. However, he did not comment on the safety of using these self-produced parts.
“For foreign aircraft, currently only simple components such as filters, rubber parts, wheels, tubes, lubricants, and similar items are being manufactured. Producing more complex parts is not feasible,” added Roman Gusarov, Editor-in-Chief of the Russian publication Avia.ru. He noted that the costs associated with developing and implementing parts for complex technical assemblies of foreign aircraft are comparable to designing and developing parts for new aircraft.
Before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the fleet of Russian airlines consisted of 1,031 aircraft. Almost two-thirds of this fleet comprised Boeing and Airbus aircraft. Due to the sanctions imposed by the EU and the US, Russian airlines are now attempting to repair these aircraft independently.
