Russian commercial fleet to exceed 1,000 by 2020

The most popular types will remain the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 (Photo by Leonid Faerberg / Transport-Photo.com)

The number of commercial aircraft operated by Russian companies is expected to exceed 1,000 airframes, for the first time in the past several years, by 2020. By this time the Russian commercial fleet will number in the 1300s, as compared to today’s 800 or so aircraft, according to the deputy director of the Engineering Holding, Igor Panshin, who mentioned the figures at the MRO Russia & CIS 2016 conference.

The increase will mostly include more popular types, including narrow-body Airbus A320s, Boeing 737s/757s; regional Sukhoi Superjet 100s and Embraers; as well as wide-body Boeing 767s. The expected growth in the fleet can be explained by the fact that the immediate effects of the crisis in the Russian economy are believed to have been overcome. Also, several popular tourist destinations have been reopened, and the niche left by the exit of the country’ second largest airline Transaero is actively being filled by other carriers.

Panshin also considers that A320s and Boeing 737s will remain the basic types of aircraft in the Russian commercial fleet. Other expected changes include that the Boeing 737 Classic will be completely phased out from all Russian fleets within the next five years, while the Sukhoi Superjet’s numbers will increase three times. The wide-body long range fleet will nearly double.

Base maintenance will also experience a boost in demand as a result of the nearly-doubled fleet by 2020. At this time, demand for MRO services will grow to approximately two times the level of supply on the Russian market.

Russian airlines in numbers