Airbus in Russia

The growing Airbus presence in Russia began in 1991 when the A310 became the first Western-built aircraft to gain a Russian Type Certificate. At about the same time Airbus initiated a series of joint research programmes with the leading Russian Institutes.

Today, Airbus has a regional office in Moscow to cover marketing and public relations, as well as to facilitate and develop current and future cooperation with the Russian aviation industry. Russia's capital city also is home a Customer Services office providing on-the-spot airline support.

Aeroflot, which put its first Western-built aircraft - an A310 - into service in 1992, acquired 18 A320 Family airliners in 2002, then another seven in 2005. Sibir Airlines, the second largest Russian carrier, currently operates seven A310 aircraft.

Eight airlines from other CIS countries - including Armenia, Ukraine, Moldova, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan - currently operate some 20 Airbus aircraft, mainly from the A320 Family.

Airbus has trained hundreds of pilots and technicians from Russian Federation airlines and has helped modernise Aeroflot's training centre, helping to install computerised equipment and simulators.

A wide co-operation programme currently is being implemented by Airbus and the Russian aviation industry as defined in an agreement between EADS (Airbus' major shareholder) and Rosaviakosmos, which was signed in July 2001. The co-operation programme will generate a turnover of more than $800 million over 10 years for Russia. Airbus’ Russian programme covers numerous research and technology projects, design work, material procurement, product manufacturing and component delivery, as well as extensive co-operation in the certification field.

In 2003, Airbus and the Kaskol Group jointly created an Airbus engineering centre in Russia, ECAR, which started with 30 Russian engineers and has since increased to 150 Russian engineers and scientists. This was the first engineering facility in Europe outside the Airbus home countries.

The centre is equipped with the most modern communication equipment and linked in real time with Airbus engineering in France and Germany. It performs extensive work in disciplines such as fuselage structure, stress, systems installation and design work for serial activity. The main activity at ECAR currently concerns the design of several fuselage sections for the A380 Freighter. It has also been involved from the very outset in design work on the new A350 programme.

In 2004 and 2005, Airbus placed two large work packages with Russian manufacturers - the first one for the A320 Family with IRKUT Scientific Production Corporation, and the second one for aircraft of the A320, A330/A340 and A380 Families with IRKUT and Voronezh Aircraft Production Association. Each package is worth $200 million over ten years.

As far as research and technology, and material purchase are concerned, numerous projects are being run with the participation of hundreds of Russian specialists. Verkhnaya Salda Metallurgical Production Association continues to supply more than half of all Airbus titanium.

Airbus keeps actively exploring opportunities for further developing its co-operation with the Russian aviation industry, and has proposed a long-term partnership programme to the Russian aviation industry and the government, concerning particularly the engineering and manufacturing of parts for the A350 programme, the single-aisle freighter conversion project and the design of new-generation Airbus aircraft.






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