AZUR air will reduce its staff by at least 20% due to the aging of its existing aircraft fleet. The carrier will gradually decommission 2-3 aircraft during the year.
In total, AZUR air operates six Boeing 757-200s (average age 27.5 years) and six Boeing 767-300s (average age 32.5 years). Previously, the airline sent engines for repair to the USA and Europe, but now this is not possible.
There are no competencies in Russia for repairing such rare engines. An additional complexity of the situation is that AZUR air has several types of them at once — Pratt & Whitney 2037/2040, Pratt & Whitney 4060, Rolls-Royce RB211 and General Electric CF6.
The units are incompatible with each other, so it is almost impossible to rearrange engines or their components from one aircraft to another.
Economist Dmitry Semenov noted that domestic aviation industry enterprises are capable of providing airlines with domestically produced aircraft. However, this will not happen as quickly as we would like — the process may take 5-10 years.
Aviation expert Roman Gusarov also explained to "Pervy Technichesky" that the new MC-21s will not be exported for the next 10 years — first you need to saturate your own airlines.
