Old Airplanes Will Be Mothballed For Russian Airlines

The launch of the new liners failed.

Russian airlines in 2026-2027 will receive mothballed old airplanes to support the growing passenger traffic, Rostec told "Izvestia". We are talking about 12 airplanes of different types - nine aircraft of the Tu-204-214 family, one An-148 and two Il-96. The process of their restoration started in 2022 and at the moment 10 of the 12 aircraft have already been returned to service. Among the recipients of the aircraft are Red Wings and other companies.

Simultaneously, air carriers are also rehabilitating foreign aircraft. In particular, Rossiya plans to increase the number of operated double-deck Boeing 747s. Two such airliners, which were delivered to the company after the bankruptcy of Transaero, are already flying. According to Izvestiya's source in the airline, a third 24-year-old board will be restored in November 2025, and the fourth is planned to be put into service by 2027. These planes were put in storage during the pandemic, and their refurbishment could be carried out in "friendly" countries, such as Iran, said Anton Blik, an expert on the supply of complex technical products at Devise Consulting LLC.

According to Rosaviatsia, as of October 2025, the flight fleet of major Russian airlines had 1,088 aircraft out of 1,135 available, with 67% of them being foreign-made.

Restoration of mothballed airliners is an attempt to fill the emerging shortage of equipment, says the founder of RunAvia safe flight service, aviation expert Andrey Patrakov. In 2024, against the backdrop of fleet reduction, the capacity limit was reached: average seat utilization exceeded 96% in the peak summer period and 75% the rest of the time. A slight decrease in passenger traffic in 2025 is directly related to the reduction of the fleet, Patrakov noted.

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