Rossija has to cancel flights to Beijing

The Russian airline Rossija would like to launch several connections to Beijing in time for Christmas. But nothing will come of it. The airport operator responsible is refusing to accept and operate the flights - another blow for Russian aviation.

The Russian airline Rossiya has had to cancel its flights from Siberian and Far Eastern regions to Beijing because it was unable to meet the unnamed requirements of the Chinese airport operator. The Russian state news agency TASS and the Moscow-based media house RBC unanimously report that the Aeroflot subsidiary has canceled connections from Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk and Vladivostok to the Chinese capital. The routes were new and were due to go into operation this week.

"Rossiya had to cancel the flights because there was not enough time to fully fulfill the contracts and Chinese requirements," TASS reported, citing an employee of Krasnoyarsk airport. An employee of the airport in Vladivostok is said to have confirmed the information. The passengers on the affected flights are to be rebooked on other connections in order to get to Beijing as planned.

It is not known which requirements are involved. According to RBC, Rossiya was informed by the Beijing-Daxing airport administration on December 15 that it would refuse to accept and operate flights until "additional requirements" were met. The Russian airline has promised to ensure compliance with these requirements as soon as possible. According to the information provided, the airport administration "did not cooperate".

Russian aviation is in a serious crisis. Like many other airlines around the world, Russian airlines predominantly rely on aircraft from the two Western manufacturers Airbus and Boeing. Since the Russian attack on Ukraine, they are no longer allowed to supply spare parts or provide maintenance and service support due to sanctions.

Airlines such as Rossija's parent company Aeroflot therefore began to cannibalize older aircraft in search of spare parts last year. This year, several airlines have reportedly switched to servicing Airbus and Boeing aircraft less frequently. In May, it was reported that Aeroflot, among others, had instructed cabin crew to ignore aircraft defects and malfunctions in certain cases.

The results are sobering: in August, hundreds of Russian holidaymakers were stranded in Turkey for more than two days because two Boeing 777s operated by Red Wings went on strike. In October, a Ural Airlines Airbus A320 with 165 people on board had to make an emergency landing in the Siberian tundra due to technical problems. At the beginning of December, a Boeing 777 of the airline S7 had to make an emergency landing shortly after take-off in Novosibirsk, Siberia, due to engine damage. Just one day earlier, a cargo plane had to make an emergency landing in Siberia due to an engine fire.

An analysis by "Novaya Gazeta Europa " and the US news magazine "Newsweek " revealed that the number of safety-related incidents has tripled since the start of the war. This year, there have already been 180 malfunctions and breakdowns - and the trend is rising. According to the "Kyiv Independent", eleven mal functions in civil aviation were recorded in the first week of December alone.

"On the brink of collapse"

The Ukrainian military intelligence service HUR recently claimed to have hacked the Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsia in a cyberattack. The data obtained shows that Russian aviation is "on the verge of collapse".

The most problematic areas of Russian aviation are said to be engines and landing gear as well as hydraulic systems, flaps and software. There are "serious difficulties in the maintenance of aircraft with high flight hours". Due to the shortage of skilled workers, Moscow is trying to switch aircraft maintenance to Iran, where the work is being carried out without appropriate certification.