Russia's plane shortage holds air travel back as wartime wages drive demand

As Russia's war effort fuels economic growth and drives up wages, air travel has been on the rise too, with Russians defying Western sanctions by heading to domestic holiday spots or "friendly" countries where they are still welcome. However, just as soaring government spending on the war in Ukraine is fuelling a consumer spending boom and more and more people chose to spend the extra cash on travel, Russia's civil aviation sector is struggling to take advantage of booming demand. The reason? Russia just does not have enough planes. While the sanctions fell short of the desired effect of crippling Russia's economy and starving its war machine, they did cut off the supply of planes and parts, which domestic production could not replace. As a result, fewer new planes could be added to Russia's fleet to meet rising demand and Moscow was forced to ask neighbouring countries to help run some domestic routes. Russia has touted its economic resilience in the face of sanctions, but difficulty in ending its reliance on Western planes highlights the limits to Moscow's goal of breaking free from Western influence and having domestic industries pick up the slack. With most of Europe's airspace closed to Russian carriers, most traffic shifted to domestic routes, data from Russia's civil aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia shows. International travel has pivoted to countries that have not imposed sanctions on Moscow, such as Turkey, ex-Soviet countries and the United Arab Emirates, according to data from the FSB security service, which tracks border crossings.<br/>