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Aircraft Maintenance and Repair in Russia and CIS

The Sixth International Conference and Exhibition on Aircraft Maintenance and Repair in Russia and CIS countries took place on February 24 and 25, in the territory of the International Trade Centre. This event was organized by ATO Events and supported by the Russian Federation Air Transport Operators Association.

            The recent Conference and Exhibition is the only event in the post-Soviet territory, where the maintenance and repair market participants can discuss the problems of development and adaptation of the aircraft maintenance and repair system in relation to the current conditions.

            The Conference was participated by the representatives of Russian and CIS airlines, maintenance and repair companies, providers of spare parts and aggregates for aircrafts, governmental and regulatory authorities, aircraft industry companies, financial and investment circles, insurance and leasing companies, and mass media. About 400 participants were registered to take part in this Conference.

            The conference programme expressed the recent tendencies in the air transport industry, which is experiencing significant changes. The actual problems of the current reality determined the topics of reports in the terms of this event:

            ·            Maintenance and repair of foreign-made aircraft in Russia.
            The fleet of foreign aircraft in Russia is rapidly growing. At the present moment, 35 airlines are operating over 400 commercial aircraft. Most air carriers have learned the principles of foreign aircraft operation and are now looking for the maintenance and repair costs reducing methods. What can be offered by the title industry and by the carriers themselves for solution of the given problem?

            ·      New approaches to operation of modern Russian aircraft.
            The starting operation of An-148 aircraft and preparation to mastering of SuperJet is accompanied by the declarations on the principally new client support system for these models. How is the technical support concept of Russian aircraft corresponding to the expectations of airlines? How will the structural changes in the aircraft building industry affect the mutual relationships with the operators?

            ·      Sparepartssupplyproblems.
            The imperfect component supply system for foreign-made aircraft is still one of the most urgent problems. The untimely delivery of spare parts is the more and more frequent cause of ineffective use of the Western- and Russian-made aircraft fleet. What are the ways to solution of this problem? Legal, financial, logistic aspects and issues of authenticity.

            ·       Maintenance and repair of foreign-made regional aircraft.
            In 2010, the fleets of Russian airlines increased the number of both turboprop and jet foreign-made aircraft. What are the specific features in organization of regional aircraft maintenance and repair? What problems have to be solved by the operators?

            In the exhibition arranged in parallel, the participants could share their contacts, discuss the recent news, establish their business contacts, as well as communicate with their professional partners. The certainly high level of the recent event should be noted. The organizers provided even such details as chargers for all the types of mobile phones and opportunity to listen to foreign speakers in Russian language.

            In the terms of this conference, they arranged the specialized topical workshops, which enabled the participants to get an access to the detailed information on the topic corresponding to the business specificity of any company. The workshop topics were as follows:
            -  maintenance and repair of foreign-made aircraft engines;
            - deliveries of air engineering products;
            - organization of regional aircraft maintenance and repair.

            As was estimated by the organizers of this exhibition, we can surely refer to the increasing number of foreign corporate participants (foreign companies – 41 %, Russian companies – 59 %) as compared to the preceding events. The strong attention of the foreign maintenance and repair providers is accounted for by the prospective growth of foreign-made aircraft market in Russia and other CIS countries. For example, as follows from the report by Professor Tech. Dr. Vasiliy Shapkin, General Director of the National Research Institute of Civil Aviation (Federal Governmental Unitary Company), the Russian market of air transport in the long-term future will remain one of the most dynamically developing segments of the world market. From 2001 to 2010, the average annual growth rates of the Russian airlines traffic was 10.7 % for passengers and 6.5 % for cargoes. «Though the economic crisis of 2009 made the negative corrections in the air transport business, already in 2010, the Russian market increased by more than 30 % and restored the former tendency of growth. According to the annual results of 2010, the air passenger traffic amounted 147 billion passenger-kilometers and exceeded by 20 % the pre-crisis level of 2008», he noted in his speech.

            In the section discussing foreign-made aircraft maintenance and repair in Russia, a report on «Certification features of maintenance and repair companies in accordance with the PART-145 requirements» was made by S. N. Potapov, Aviasystems Vice General Director. This report outlined the problems experienced by companies for certification under the European rules, in accordance with the PART-145 requirements, and solution methods thereof.

            In general, this Conference demonstrated the great interest of the Western maintenance and repair providers to the Russian market. This interest is accounted for by the reviving air transport market and expanding model series of aircraft operated in Russia and other CIS countries. The forecast capacity and fleet replenishment with foreign aircraft make the Russian post-sale maintenance market promising and very attractive for the Western companies.