A UTair flight from Moscow to Dubai had to make an emergency landing back at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport on Saturday, Jan. 11, The Moscow Times reported. It marks the fourth incident of a Russian airline plane breaking down since the start of 2025—and the second for UTair in just a week.
UTair stated that the emergency return was caused by “a change in the level of hydraulic fluid.” The plane, carrying 240 passengers, turned back near Baku and landed safely in Moscow.
This latest incident follows a UTair Boeing 737 breakdown on Jan. 7, which forced a flight from St. Petersburg to Samarkand to land at Vnukovo.
On Jan. 4, two other planes encountered technical problems: a Ural Airlines Airbus A321neo flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to Yekaterinburg returned to its departure airport, and a NordStar Airlines Boeing 737 traveling from Volgograd to Yekaterinburg had to abort its flight.
According to the report, before the war in Ukraine, Russia’s fleet consisted of 1,031 aircraft, with two-thirds manufactured by Boeing and Airbus.
However, Western sanctions have since banned the maintenance of these aircraft and restricted the supply of new parts, pushing airlines to resort to “cannibalizing” planes—using parts from some aircraft to repair others.
Analysts from Oliver Wyman predict that by 2026, Russia’s aviation fleet could shrink by more than half.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has also flagged Russia with a “red flag” designation, indicating a low level of flight safety—a rating shared by only a handful of countries, including Bhutan, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Compounding these issues, aviation incidents in Russia have reached a six-year high. By November 2024, 208 incidents had been recorded—a 30% increase compared to the same period in 2023. In late November and early December alone, three Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft suffered failures during flights.
In August, Kyiv Post reported that some airlines are now rationing fuel as Moscow’s already struggling commercial airlines stagger from one crisis to another.
Pilots from Pobeda Airlines, a low-cost carrier in the Aeroflot group, have raised alarms over dangerously low fuel levels, alleging that aircraft are sometimes refueled below the minimum required for safe journeys.
While avoiding mention of the effect of Ukrainian strikes against Russian fuel depots, the pilots described these practices as “criminal,” blaming economic pressures and rising fuel prices. They argue that the reduced fuel margins, combined with inadequate maintenance, severely compromise safety.
Russian aviation fuel prices, according to the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange, have risen by 30% since March 2022, further straining operations.
Reports suggest fuel calculations are being made for the shortest possible routes, with no allowance for weather deviations or airport delays.