Russian airlines are currently making almost no use of the opportunity to replenish their Boeing and Airbus fleets through the secondary market and complex supply schemes. According to aviation expert Oleg Panteleev, even with such precedents in other countries, a large-scale return of Western wide-body aircraft to the Russian fleet should not be expected, Oleg Panteleev, an aviation expert, told "Pervy Tekhnichesky".
According to the expert, sanctioned carriers can indeed find aircraft on the secondary market and build complex supply chains. Similar schemes are used, in particular, by Iranian airlines. There is also a more relevant example for the Russian market: Belarusian "Belavia" acquired a wide-body Airbus A330.
But Russian airlines have not yet implemented any large-scale projects for importing foreign aircraft. I believe that in the future, such deals, if they are implemented at all, will be on a very small scale.
At the same time, Panteleev also advises against counting on a complete lifting of sanctions. Even if the restrictions are ever lifted, this does not guarantee that access to Western technology will remain constant.
So there is no alternative to the supply of domestic aircraft now, and no such alternative is foreseen in the near future.
Earlier, Sergey Khlyzov, Minister of Industry and Transport of Voronezh Oblast, assessing the situation around the Voronezh Aircraft Plant, openly admitted that civil airlines refuse to operate the Il-96.
The only customer remains the SLO "Russia", while commercial carriers, according to Khlyzov, "are just waiting for when they can buy Boeing again".