Russian aircraft manufactures not up to scratch

The Russian aircraft-manufacturing industry is unable to put out the required number of modern airplanes for the Russian air carriers, head of the federal agency for the air transport Nikolai Shipil said in response to a question from Itar-Tass.
“Time has been lost not by the air carriers but by the industry,” Mr. Shipil said. According to him, “A large-scale importation of foreign-made aircraft into Russia is in progress. Twelve Boeing-757 have passed the customs clearance procedures in full and are moving into Russia,” Kaliningrad Airlines Company has trained crews to bring in a Boeing-737-400 and a Boeing-737-500 airliners. Western panes can be bought on a secondary market and Russian air companies will continue to import foreign planes into the country.
The Agency leader thinks that the cost of importation of the Boeing-757, the customs clearance cost included, is approximately 14 million dollars, while the price of a new Russian Tupolev-214 is 32 million dollars. This divergence in prices poses “a great danger” to the Russian aviation industry, said he.
Further operational problems with the Russian planes are superimposed. He cited the experience of Krasnoyarsk Air Company, Russia’s third largest air carrier. In 2003, it spent 51 million roubles to buy spare parts for its Tupolev-204 planes, which amounts to almost 50 percent of its total spending on the maintenance of its entire fleet of aircraft. “It is comparable to the wages paid by the enterprise to all of its employees for forty-five days of work,” Mr. Shipil said.
He also noted that the airlines “must help and do help the industry” by placing their orders with the domestic manufacturers. “But the industry must not sit on its hands,” the head of the deferral Agency for the Air Transport said.