Sunday, November 15, 2015

Aeroflot's switch to Western planes is a key factor in the demise of Russian aircraft manufacturing

Instead of buying Western planes, Aeroflot should've leased these so as to be able to get rid of these once issues in domestically-made aircraft got solved. It should've simultaneously pressured and consulted Russian manufacturers to produce overhauled/refined/updated versions of their existing aircraft as a short-term solution and all-new, world-class aircraft as the long-term solution.

Aeroflot's switch to Western-made planes [link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4] has been one of the major factors in the demise of Russia's aircraft manufacturing industry. Aeroflot shouldn't have switched completely to foreign-made planes. It should've retained at least some Russian-made planes [perhaps the Tu-204 or An-148] and should've maintained these well.

Update [2-May-19]: There's another, completely opposite way to look at the effect on Russian passenger aircraft manufacturing of Aeroflot's switch to American and European airliners. Could it be that the switch to Western planes is actually eventually helping Russian passenger plane manufacturing? One might ask how. Had Aeroflot not made this switch, it would most likely had not thrived the way it has, and most likely today it would've been a tiny fraction of the giant it is now [thanks to its timely switch to Western airliners]. Now that it has grown into a very large international airline spanning the skies across the globe, it is in a powerful position to support the Russian aircraft manufacturing industry by gradually inducting Russian planes. Further, now that it has full experience with high-quality Western passenger planes, it can actually positively guide the development of new Russian planes, and can also make the right demands for quality and features to Russian plane designers and manufacturers. This wouldn't have been possible had Aeroflot not made the switch.

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