The number of Airbus and Boeing aircraft operated by Russian carriers decreased by 11 ones during the period from August 2014 to April 1st 2015, Bloomberg reports with reference to the representative of the Federal Air Transport Agency Sergey Izvolski. Over the previous 20 years the fleet of foreign-produced airliners increased more than 10 times, RBC reports.
According to Izvolski, the number of Boeing aircraft operated by Russian carriers is 332 ones (decreased by 10 ones compared to August). The number of Airbus airliners – 281 ones (decreased by one jet).
Maximum reduction of the foreign-produced aircraft fleet is accounted for UTair Aviation, Russia’s third largest carrier. According to the carrier’s representative Maria Razumova, the number of its leased aircraft decreased from 115 to 71 liners. This will help save about $100 million per year on lease payments, UTair reported with reference to its CEO Andrei Martirosov.
Representatives of Russia’s two largest air carriers Aeroflot-Russian Airlines and Transaero, Maxim Fetisov and Sergey Bikhal, said that the companies have not reconsidered their plans for procurement of new aircraft. Transaero is going to purchase Boeing 747-8 and Airbus A380 jets, the world’s largest passenger airliners.
Russian carriers are reducing the number of flights in light of decrease in oil prices (oil is the country’s major export good) and ruble’s depreciation. These factors made the tickets too expensive for many citizens. According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, in the first quarter of 2015 the passenger traffic of Russian carriers decreased by 2,3% (to 17 million passengers) for the first time since 2009.
In June 2014 Boeing forecasted that 1330 airliners worth $150 billion would be delivered to Russia and CIS Region over the next 20 years. Representative of Boeing in Moscow Elena Alexandrova said that the company continues to work as usual.
A local spokeswoman for Airbus, Maria Shlyakhtova, confirmed decline of the number of leased aircraft, mostly because of UTair, which also rescheduled leasing of eight more aircraft for 2017. «We believe that the market will rebound regardless of reasons that caused the crisis,» she said.