Russia’s Ex-Airbus Facility Starts Production Of A321 Spares

A former Airbus facility in Russia has been used to manufacture spare parts for the A321’s drainage system through reverse engineering.

Located on the Rudnevo industrial park outside Moscow, what is now known as the IKAR Engineering Center says the first batch of spares produced is enough to modify more than a dozen A321s.

The effort is part of a larger program launched by IKAR after securing a contract from “one of the largest Russian airlines,” according to the company. IKAR says its engineers continue to develop more elements for the drainage system.

As of early November, Russia’s A321 fleet included 77 aircraft of various generations, according to the country’s federal air transport agency Rosaviatsia. The largest operators of the type were Aeroflot (35 airliners), Ural Airlines (22) and S7 Airlines (11). All three carriers have maintenance subsidiaries that are locally certified for A320-family component and structural repairs.

Deliveries of spare parts and maintenance services for the Russian fleet of Airbus and Boeing airliners was banned by Western sanctions in 2022 following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

After Airbus suspended its activities in Russia in 2022, it offloaded its share of the facility to Russian industrial conglomerate AFK Sistema. The new owner re-named the facility IKAR and switched the engineers’ focus to the development of uncrewed aerial vehicles.

Airbus had opened the engineering center back in 2003, when it was known as ECAR (Engineering Center Airbus Russia). It was set up as a joint venture with local partner Kaskol Group and became the first Airbus engineering facility outside the EU. The center employed up to 200 Russian engineers who took part in the design and support of serial production of various Airbus programs, including the А320neo, А330, A350 and А380.