Russian airline Aeroflot, which is more than half state-owned, has tried to circumvent Western sanctions to fly abroad.
To do this, the air carrier wants to open a second base – in Sochi in addition to the main base at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
From Sochi, Aeroflot hopes to launch flights on 17 foreign routes to Armenia, Egypt, Israel, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
Now almost the entire Aeroflot fleet consists only of foreign Airbus and Boeing aircraft. The airline cannot fly them abroad due to sanctions.
For this reason, flights from Sochi will be operated by Aeroflot’s subsidiary, Rossiya, on Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft.
The range of these aircraft is not enough for direct flights from Moscow abroad, which is why Sochi was chosen as a new transport hub.
At the moment, it is not known how long Superjets will be able to fly. Although they are assembled in Russia, over half of their components are supplied by foreign companies. US and EU sanctions include a ban on the transfer of spare parts for aircraft to Russia.
It is noteworthy that Aeroflot ordered 150 Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft, but removed almost all received aircraft of this type from the fleet and handed them over to Rossiya. The use of Russian aircraft proved to be less effective than flights on Western Boeings and Airbuses.