Russia aiming to fly solo without Airbus and Boeing

Russia's aviation industry will aim to go it alone without the West, using locally built parts to produce 1,000 airliners by 2030 and end a reliance on Boeing and Airbus, state-owned engineer Rostec said. The remarks from Rostec, a vast state corporation headed by a close ally of President Vladimir Putin that includes Russia's only manufacturer of civil aircraft, are the strongest indication yet that the country's aviation sector sees the confrontation with the West as a permanent schism. The West's imposition of the most severe sanctions in modern history after Moscow sent thousands of troops into Ukraine has forced the biggest change on Russia's economy since the Soviet Union crumbled from 1989 to 1991. The post-Soviet assumptions of the aviation sector have been turned on their head: foreign aircraft, mainly from Boeing and Airbus, account for 95% of passenger traffic, but sanctions mean there are no spare parts - and no prospect of any. Reuters reported in August that Russian airlines, including state controlled Aeroflot (AFLT.MM), were stripping jetliners to secure spare parts they can no longer buy abroad because of Western sanctions. But Rostec, headed by Sergei Chemezov who worked with Putin in East Germany in the 1980s, sees the upheaval as an opportunity to build a strong, self-reliant aviation industry. "Foreign aircraft will drop out of the fleet," Rostec said in a written response to Reuters questions about its plans and the situation in Russia's aviation industry.<br/>