Russian Aeroflot Will Dismantle Eight Boeing Airplanes For Spare Parts At Once
6- 30.09.2025, 9:49
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We're flying.
Aeroflot Group will receive eight Boeing freighters previously owned by Volga-Dnepr and intends to use them as donors of spare parts for its own fleet. According to Kommersant, the planes in question are six Boeing 737-800BCFs and two Boeing 747-400s. These models in passenger versions are operated by the group's airlines - Aeroflot, Rossiya and Pobeda. The deal is valued at about $130 million.
According to the newspaper, Volga-Dnepr Group has already finalized an insurance settlement with AerCap, the Irish owner of the aircraft. Kommersant's sources in the market assess the acquisition as extremely favorable for Aeroflot, as the carrier would have been much more expensive to purchase a similar volume of components on its own.
Six Boeing 737-800BCFs ceased flying in February 2022, operated by Volga-Dnepr's Atran. At the end of that year, the book value of these aircraft was estimated at RUB 10.5 billion, i.e. between RUB 1.4 and 1.9 billion for each 21-22 year old aircraft. In addition, Atran still had three Boeing 737-400s, one of which was delayed in Cologne.
Another Volga-Dnepr structure, AirBridgeCargo, operated four Boeing 747-400 Fs before the sanctions were imposed. Two of them were returned to the Chinese company BOC Aviation Limited by 2024. In addition, as of the beginning of February 2022, AirBridgeCargo had 13 Boeing 747-8 Fs and one Boeing 777 F in its air operator's certificate.
Market participants doubt that Aeroflot or its subsidiary carriers will use the new aircraft for their intended purpose. Disassembly for spare parts is the most rational solution, as it is much more expensive to import components from abroad under sanctions. "The economic efficiency of the deal is that it will be many times more expensive to import the same volume of components," says one of the interlocutors of the publication.
Executive Director of "AviaPort" Oleg Panteleyev also considers the return of "Aeroflot" in the segment of cargo transportation unlikely. According to him, from 2006 to 2009 the group had a cargo carrier Aeroflot Cargo, but after its bankruptcy in 2010, the company focused on passenger flights. "In the conditions of stagnation of the cargo market, additional aircraft are not needed," the expert emphasizes.
He also excludes the option of converting cargo Boeing into passenger: such work is too expensive. The most logical solution, Panteleyev believes, is to use the airplanes as donors or, theoretically, to exchange them for passenger airliners from the secondary market through intermediaries in "friendly countries". However, this scheme is also unrealizable due to the risk of secondary sanctions.
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