Aircraft L-410 manufactured by the Czech plant Aircraft Industries was decommissioned in Kamchatka (Far Eastern region of Russia). Aircraft have exhausted the resource of some components and assemblies, and it is impossible to replace them by parallel import.
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The Far Eastern airline Aurora and the authorities of the region were assured that they would replace the L-410 with other types of aircraft, and the refusal to operate would not affect the transport accessibility of the region’s settlements.
Kamchatka is the second Russian region that stopped the operation of the L-410 due to a lack of spare parts. At the beginning of 2023, the Komiaviatrans company from the Komi Republic stopped using such aircraft. There is no railway in the region and the road network is poorly developed.
These planes were the latest in the fleet of the local airline, which continues to work on the An-26, An-28, Yak-40 produced back in the USSR, as well as Mi-8 family helicopters.
The authorities of Kamchatka, where there is no railway and a poorly developed road network, relied on air transport to transport passengers, Russian RBC writes.
In 2023, more than 1 billion rubles were allocated from the regional budget for local flights.
L-410s manufactured by the Czech Aircraft Industries plant can carry 17-19 passengers, depending on the modification. On the island of Kamchatka in the summer of 2023, such aircraft operated flights to five hard-to-reach settlements.
There remain seven commercial L-410 operators in Russia, with only 28 such aircraft in their fleets.
The sanctions imposed after the start of a full-scale invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine by the European Union and the United States imply, among other things, a ban on the supply of Western aircraft to Russia, spare parts for it, as well as aircraft maintenance.
Some Russian companies, including those operating in the air transport sector, circumvent sanctions through “parallel imports”, but shipments through third countries often significantly increase both delivery times and the cost of goods.
Source: Racurs
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