Russia to impose additional levy on tickets to boost aviation industry

Russia is planning to impose a levy on airline tickets from 2027 to raise funds for its struggling civil aviation programme. According to the State Duma's budget and tax committee, domestic flight passengers will have to pay an additional 500 rubles, while international passengers will pay 1,000 rubles.

According to a Euronews report, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is developing these measures under the direction of President Vladimir Putin. These funds will be used to cover the lease and operating costs of 258 Russian-built aircraft under the 'Comprehensive Programme for Expanding the Production of Aircraft', which includes MS-21, Tu-214, SJ-100, and Il-114-300 models.

The state of Russia's civil aviation industry is currently weak. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, no new serial aircraft have been produced, and production deadlines have been repeatedly shifted. Between 2022 and 2025, Russian airlines received only 13 new aircraft against a target of 120, many of which were assembled from pre-sanction components.

A major change has been made to the production timeline, with the target for mass production shifted from 2030 to 2035. Certification and serial production of the MS-21 and SJ-100 are scheduled for 2027, while deliveries of the Il-114-300, which has completed certification, are expected to begin from December 2026.

The war with Ukraine has led to a decrease in Russia's aircraft fleet as old foreign aircraft are being retired without replacement. There is a shortage of spare parts, and they have become expensive to procure, leading Russia to turn towards Vietnam for leasing aircraft.

Following the February 2022 invasion, Western sanctions have deprived Russia of the ability to purchase or lease Western aircraft or obtain spare parts and maintenance services. However, Moscow has passed a law under which airlines can domestically re-register more than 400 foreign-leased Western aircraft instead of returning them to their owners. Under international aviation law, dual registration of a single aircraft is prohibited, making Russia's process illegal, but the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has no enforcement mechanism to recover them.

Lessors have filed insurance claims worth approximately $8 billion (€7.1 billion) to compensate for their losses, many of which cases are still pending. Due to the ban on Western spare parts and technical services, airlines have begun cannibalising parts from seized fleets to use in other aircraft.

The primary production capacity of Russia's aerospace sector has now shifted towards military aircraft. Official figures have been kept secret, but according to industry observers, only a few dozen aircraft are being produced per year.