MOSCOW. Nov 29 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia loses over $2.1 billion annually when it buys foreign aircraft, a source in the Federal Industry Agency told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"The strategy of buying foreign aircraft at privileged prices has quite a significant negative impact on Russian economy. For instance, the economic damage for various taxes and dues is estimated at over $1.1 billion. About the same amount is lost by the Russian air industry that loses customers," the source said.
According to him, Russian air carriers bought 10 Russian airliners from 2002 till 2004, while at the same time 31 Boeings (В-737, В-757, В-767) and Airbuses (А-319, А-320) were also procured.
At the present time, Russian aircraft operators have 57 foreign airliners in service, including 30 of Aeroflot and 16 of Transaero. "Foreign airliners were bought on clearances from custom fees provided by special ordinances of the Russian government to Russia's leading airline companies, Aeroflot and Transaero, or at dumping prices, as the aircraft had been intensively used abroad prior to their selling to Russia," the source said.
"If the government continues to pursuit such a policy, it will of course be more profitable for Russian companies to buy foreign aircraft, leaving Russian aircraft manufacturers abandoned. And we have this situation despite the fact that Russian Tu-204, Tu-214, Il-96-300 and some other airliners are not at all inferior to foreign rivals, and have an advantage of significantly smaller price as compared to those," he said.
Speaking of regional airliners, the source said that attempts have been observed to replace Russian planes with foreign makes, including for instance Brazilian Embraers, used Dash-8s of the Canadian Bombardier Company, or even MD-83 and Fokker-100s that have long been taken out of production and had been operated in Germany for quite some time before they were sold to Russia. "We have to face this despite Russia has Tu-334, Tu-324 and An-148 regional planes, and moreover, the Russian Regional Jet (RRJ) is being developed," he emphasized.
He also said that license production of foreign aircraft, including ERJ-135, ERJ-145 and Cessna Caravan, is being considered now, which will not be in the interests of the Russian economy either.