Isolated from financial operations with most Western countries due to conflicts with Ukraine, Russia has been looking for quite peculiar methods to maintain a good part of its air operations without interruption.
As a result of the sanctions, Russian airlines are barred from acquiring new aircraft, including leasing for lease, aggressively affecting its operations.
To get around the situation, Russia decided to reactivate aircraft that were previously stocked and with no expected return, this is the case of the Ilyushin Il-96, Tupolev Tu-204/14 and Antonov An-124 aircraft, models that had their programs closed partially still in the 1990s and with few units produced throughout the 2000s.
According to the country's local media, the state-owned United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) will be responsible for the preservation and removal of aircraft from storage for restoration and updating of components for operational return.
In addition, avionics systems that have Western parts will be exchanged for Russian-made equivalents. With this, the expectation is that the restored aircraft enter into service in mid-2024.
With the MC-21 and CR-929 programs moving forward in their development, Russia also announced the resumption of production of the 'old' Tu-214 which will be equipped with extra fuel tanks to increase the aircraft's autonomy.
However, the new Tu-21s will be equipped with upgraded Aviadvigatel PS-90A engines to increase the maximum take-off weight (MTOW). Unlike the MC-21, there is no presence of the modern and more economical PD-14 engines of the MC-21.
The big obstacle is still hiring specialized labor to expand the production of aircraft in Russia, since until then the focus was on the production of the SSJ100 and MC-21.
