The American corporation Boeing is ready to resume aircraft deliveries to Russia and their maintenance. According to the newspaper "Trud", signals about this are coming through insiders and shareholder statements. However, Stanislav Ryzhakov, former deputy chief designer of "Tupolev", notes that Americans will only return if the domestic airliner program fails. Roman Gusarov, editor-in-chief of the AVIA.RU portal, explained to "Trud" why Boeing is so persistent and what it means for Russia.
Why Boeing is so eager to return
The expert estimates the capacity of the Russian market at 700 mainline aircraft for 15-20 years. Including spare parts and maintenance, this amounts to tens of billions of dollars. The closer domestic airliners are to mass production, the higher the risk of losing this market for decades – hence the corporation's haste.
What about the Russian aircraft fleet
The fleet of 76 airlines includes 1088 airworthy aircraft, of which about 620 are Western-made with an average age of 17 years. A third of the fleet may be retired by 2030. The "1000 aircraft" program has not yet provided any aircraft to carriers: the first Il-114-300 will be delivered only at the end of the year, and the MC-21 is still undergoing certification – 18 units have been produced, with another 17 in production.
Why Boeing should not be trusted
In 2022, the corporation participated in an attempt to paralyze Russian aviation: it cut off maintenance, withdrew training centers, and destroyed simulators for pilot training. According to Gusarov, Russia has already invested too much in its own aircraft industry to let a competitor back into the market.
What Boeing offers
In return, the corporation is ready to resume purchasing Russian titanium – every third of its aircraft was assembled from our metal. But, according to the expert, this is only possible if sanctions on the aviation industry and the banking sector are lifted. If Russia purchases domestic MC-21s, Boeing will lose the Russian market for decades.
Read more on the topic:
- "Boeing is ready to resume deliveries right now": What will happen to MC-21 and Tu-214
- Analyst Explains Benefits of Boeing's Return to Russia: MC-21 and SJ-100 Will Not Suffer
- MC-21 will deprive Boeing of a $140 billion market