Despite Moscow's claims that the sanctions are "ineffective," Russia's aviation industry is feeling their impact more and more acutely.
Points of attention
- Sanctions are significantly affecting the Russian aviation industry, causing a surge in air ticket prices and jeopardizing flight safety due to the lack of spare parts and maintenance.
- Aeroflot, a major Russian airline, is facing the threat of bankruptcy as restrictions on modern aircraft and maintenance services worsen the aviation crisis.
- Passengers will bear the brunt of the industry's escalating costs, with warnings of considerable airfare hikes and additional infrastructure fees to cover rising expenses.
Aeroflot is one step away from bankruptcy
Despite claims that sanctions are not in effect, the Russian aviation industry is seriously feeling the effects of them. Restrictions on access to modern aircraft, spare parts, and service only exacerbate the crisis in Russian aviation.
As a result, the main hostages of the situation are passengers, who will pay for the industry's growing costs from their own wallets.
In particular, Aeroflot warned of a new significant increase in the cost of air tickets in Russia. In the first half of 2025, the company's average fares have already increased by 6%.
However, this is just the beginning — in the future prices will jump even more. The reason is the rapid increase in the cost of servicing aircraft and passengers. Added to this is the increasingly serious problem with the technical condition of aircraft: due to the lack of spare parts and service under sanctions, the number of breakdowns is increasing, and therefore — emergency landings.
As noted in foreign intelligence, this threatens not only the comfort but also the safety of flights in Russia.
In addition, the growing share of airport costs is an acute problem — on some routes it already reaches 30% of the ticket price.
To cover these costs, Russian airlines are introducing an additional “infrastructure fee,” which will ultimately fall on the shoulders of passengers. The head of Aeroflot openly admitted: it is impossible to shift all costs to air carriers, and there are no alternative sources of income.
