More than 900 passenger aircraft will be needed over the next twenty years by Russian airlines looking to meet market growth, according to the latest Airbus Global Market Forecast (GMF).
The Russian passenger aircraft fleet of 100 seats or more is expected to grow strongly from 528 aircraft in service in 2006 to nearly 950 by 2026. The increased demand will represent a value at current list price of $79 billion.
The growing demand for aircraft is the consequence of the strong growth of passenger traffic in Russia, which is expected to increase at a rate of 6.2 per cent per year on average over the next 20 years, compared to a world average of 4.9 per cent.
This strong demand for air transport in Russia is driven by the impressive economic development in the region - with domestic demand growth expected to be the highest in the world at over ten per cent for the next five years - and a six-fold increase in disposable income over the past eight years, creating 20 million additional Russian tourists compared to 1999.
Airbus has been working with the Russian aviation sector since 1991. In that year, the twin-engine, wide-body A310 became the first Western-built aircraft to receive a Russian Type Certificate and then to enter service with Aeroflot. Today, in the CIS, 12 airlines are operating a total of 92 Airbus aircraft, including 68 aircraft in operation with five Russian carriers. 111 more aircraft will be delivered in the near future to the CIS.

An important step has been taken towards new nuclear builds in the UK, as the nuclear industry was recently invited today to bring forward new reactor designs for a Justification Decision.
As set out in January's White Paper on Nuclear Power, the Justification process is a necessary step to meet the requirements of EU regulation, to evaluate the associated benefits and limitations, prior to the building of new nuclear power stations.
The Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) is issuing a specific invite for applications within a specific timeframe, to ensure the Justification process is effective, fair and open. Multiple nuclear reactor designs offering similar benefits and detriments could be assessed as part of a single application.
Business Secretary John Hutton explains the significance of the move: "The Justification Decision is the first major regulatory stage for new nuclear reactors, and an important step towards the construction of new nuclear power stations in the UK.
" The process is designed to be fair, transparent and robust, but also as efficient as possible, easing unnecessary burdens for the energy industry, the Government and regulators.
" Momentum [for new nuclear power stations] is building and it is important this is maintained by taking the necessary steps to reduce the regulatory and planning risks facing investors."
The Justification process, including a formal consultation, is expected to take around 18 months to complete.

A new research and development centre based in the UK could help the development, testing and validation of future transport technologies. The development, called innovITS - ADVANCE, could be used by customers from the telecommunications, automotive and electronics industries, as well as highways authorities and operators. By facilitating innovation in co-operative vehicle, highway and telecommunications technologies, innovITS - ADVANCE aims to reduce accidents, improve environmental efficiency and help to alleviate traffic congestion, through the efficient and intelligent interaction of vehicles and highway infrastructure.
The new R&D centre is the result of a collaboration between innovITS, the UK centre of excellence in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and technologies for sustainable mobility, MIRA, an automotive test and development organisations - which will host the new centre at its headquarters in Warwickshire - and the UK's Transport Research Laboratory (TRL). A detailed design and planning study is underway and is due to be completed in August 2008, prior to the start of construction of the first phase of the development - a 'city' circuit. The entire innovITS - ADVANCE project represents an investment of approximately €30 million over five phases, the first of which is scheduled to open for business in late summer 2009.
Examples of the type of projects, which might be carried out by innovITS - ADVANCE customers, include collision avoidance and mitigation; road sign detection; traffic management; and autonomous vehicles.