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Russia is bringing some types of aircraft back into service because sanctions have limited the country's ability to maintain its fleet of passenger aircraft.
The planes being returned to service include a Ukrainian-designed model that had been taken out of service due to safety concerns.
Pro-Kremlin media outlet Izvestia reported on January 19 that 12 aircraft will be "reactivated" by Russian airlines in 2026.
Ten aircraft have already been delivered to airlines to cope with the decline in the number of aircraft in the fleet, "which is being exacerbated by sanctions," according to the report.
Sanctions imposed after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine have prevented Russia from purchasing Western-made aircraft or spare parts. About 75 percent of Russia's commercial airline fleet is built in the United States, the European Union or Canada.
The planes being returned to service include an Antonov An-148, a Ukrainian-designed jet that had been grounded in Russia since 2018 after a crash in February of that year that killed all 71 passengers on board.
The entire Russian fleet of more than two dozen aircraft of this model was taken out of service after the accident, and, in May of that same year, Cuba banned its national airline from flying a version of the same aircraft.
Other aircraft returning to commercial service include the Ilyushin Il-96 and the medium-range Tupolev Tu-204/214. Both of these aircraft made their first flights in the final years of the Soviet Union.
The Tupolev is currently used by the national airlines of North Korea and Cuba, which are affected by sanctions, as well as by Russia's Red Wings Airlines. A long-haul version of the Ilyushin passenger jet serves as Vladimir Putin's presidential plane.
Other Tu-204/214 aircraft are used by Cuba's national airline and a Russian air cargo company.
American Boeing 747s, whose production was halted in 2023, are also preparing to return to Russian skies. These long-haul jets could reportedly be brought back into service relatively easily, due to the abundance of spare parts produced for the more than 1,500 747s built since the 1970s.
Despite being cut off from the US airline industry for decades, Iran currently operates a small fleet of 747s, one of which is almost 50 years old. Aeroflot, Russia's national airline, has previously sent its EU-made Airbus jets to Tehran for maintenance.
The shortage of aircraft for Russian airlines was expected to be compensated for by a campaign to produce 127 new aircraft from 2023 to 2025. By January 2026, only 13 aircraft had been delivered to civil airlines.
Russia has reportedly created a complex network of companies to evade sanctions on aviation parts. In February 2025, the US Department of Justice announced that three people associated with an Ohio company had been arrested on charges of exporting $2 million worth of aircraft parts to Russia./ REL
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