Business aviation today faces many challenges in Russia, and the annual RUBAE trade show offers insight into how the industry is faring in the face of international tensions. About 10,000 attendees had been registered by RUBAE 2019 organizers before the three-day event in Moscow-Vnukovo airport closed on September 13. The organizers listed 63 firms as participants, including nine sponsors and partners without actual exhibits or booths, and 11 companies represented in the static display area only. The rest had their stands and booths inside a 5,000-sq-m hangar at the Vnukovo-3 business aviation center on the western side of the airport’s runway.
Due to Western sanctions on Russia, fewer exhibitors at Vnukovo now dare to have public deal signings, run press briefings, or even talk to the media. That was one of the reasons the show organizers (VIPPORT company, a member in the larger group running the Vnukovo airport) asked the Russian United Business Aviation Association (RUBAA) to accept responsibility for the exhibition’s schedule of conferences, briefings, and roundtables. This made RUBAE 2019’s conference program somewhat more vivid, with focus not on news but rather education and promoting best practices in safety, air traffic management, market research and analysis, and other issues of interest to most of the foreign and local exhibitors.
Key Western manufacturers that keep coming to this show are Dassault Aviation, Leonardo Helicopters, Gulfstream Aerospace, Embraer, and Bombardier Business Aircraft. Their stands occupied about a third of the roofed space available. RusAero controls several service providers to business aviation in key Russian airports, together with three Moscow-based business jet operators Sirius Aero, Meridian, and RusJet had booths whose combined space came close to that of Dassault’s stand, which, again, was the largest at the show.
The number of operable aircraft on display totaled 18 (compared with 20 last year). There were three helicopters (Russian Helicopters Ansat, Airbus H125M, and Leonardo A109), two turboprops (a Pilatus PC-12NG and a Piper PA-46-600TP), two bizliners (a Tupolev Tu-204-100V and Airbus ACJ319), and 11 business jets. Bombardier brought its Global 7500. Embraer flew in a Legacy 500 and a Phenom 300E, while Gulfstream showed a G650ER, a G600, and a G280. Dassault flew in a Falcon 8X and a 900LX; local operator Fort Aero added a Falcon 2000. Other domestic companies provided a Cessna 525 CitationJet I outfitted with winglets, and a Hawker 700A.
The largest Western exhibit was an ACJ319 operated by MJet GmbH; the aircraft was also on show in 2015 and 2016 thanks to Airbus Corporate Jets. At its 103-tonne maximum gross weight, the heaviest aircraft on display was side number RA-64014, a Tu-204-100V narrowbody passenger airliner recently converted into a VIP jet. Built in 1994, the airplane suffered an engine failure two years later, with debris causing serious damage to the empennage. After the airplane had been grounded for 14 years, a government-controlled bank bought it and returned it to the manufacturing plant Aviastar-SP for repairs and interior alteration. Restoration work began in 2016, following United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) receiving a Rouble 2.6 billion ($40.5 million) injection from the Kremlin. Interior specialist Vemina-Aviaprestige provided a luxurious VVIP cabin. It is now painted in colors closely reminiscent of those of Aeroflot but operated by RusJet on behalf of the owner, which is believed to be one of the top Russian banks. The aircraft now flies charter for the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Tightening Western sanctions make the Kremlin rely more on indigenous products, as do those businessmen in the country who made their fortune based on close relations with the ruling elite. Hence RA-64014’s story is likely to repeat itself many times. While it is not a perfect solution, it does ensure that the aircraft owners and users will not come under the sanctions hammer, as Gennady Timchenko did in with his Global 650, which was prepaid but never delivered. In their turn, Western manufacturers, who remain eager to sell into Russia, now prefer to keep silent on any new orders they manage to win, so as not to provoke the U.S. and E.U. to apply sanctions to those few businessmen in Russia who still earn enough to afford a business jet new from the factory.
