At the beginning of this year, according to the Business Aviation Association, the Russians had about 500 business jets at their disposal, of which no more than 20% were in leasing. Last spring, most of these vessels had to be returned to lessors outside Russia. The rest were re-registered in our country.
Private aviation has overcome a critical period: today, compared to March of this year, there is a recovery. The intensity of flights on business jets has increased by about two times. And given the shortage of modern private aircraft in the current conditions, the demand for business aviation services has increased even more significantly. At the same time, customers are not stopped by price increases.
When planning a vacation, it should be borne in mind that not all cities agree to provide a private jet of the Russian operator with fuel. To avoid such troubles, it is necessary to agree on the flight schedule in advance. Now for our tourists available, for example, Turkey, UAE, Seychelles, Maldives, Vietnam. Totally avoid countries in Europe, the United States and Canada.
“Unfortunately, our company has not yet resumed aircraft maintenance, but the number of customers we provide business aviation services to reaches 30.” In general, in Russia, the demand for services for aircraft selection – sale, diagnostics, audit, registration and maintenance is growing, says Alexey Butrimov. The private flights sector has not felt the exemptions for aviation mentioned in the 7th package of EU sanctions: we have not yet seen the practice of lifting certain bans.
It is assumed that in the future, domestic business aviation will be able to do on its own, releasing a Russian business jet. There are prerequisites for this and certain developments in aviation appear. For example, Roselectronics Holding (as part of Rostec) created a replacement for American electronic communication components for domestic Sukhoi Superjet-100 and MS-21 aircraft. However, these are large aircraft that are difficult to maintain in business aviation. It will take at least 5 years to innovate. Therefore, most likely, the initial assembly of its own aircraft will be carried out on domestic projects with the help of Chinese components. But Europe and the United States are only doing us good: this situation stimulates the aviation industry in Russia, and the country will subsequently be able to produce their products without foreign participation.
BJet is also planning to contribute to the aviation industry. Now the company's specialists are preparing to obtain a certificate FAP-21 (Federal Aviation Regulations), which allows you to modernize the fleet and manufacture parts for aircraft. “The specific opportunities that the new license will give us will be known later, it takes time to comply with the formalities in the design. And while we expand, we recruit designers and other personnel, concludes Butrimov.
