Grounding Jets Could Cost Aeroflot $20M

MOSCOW – A government decision to ground Russia’s Ilyushin Il-96-300 commercial jets because of brake failures is likely to cost Aeroflot airlines about $20 million, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

Aeroflot deputy director general Lev Koshlyakov told the news agency that the grounding of the long-distance jets could cost the company $20 million in hotel accommodations, replacement flights and other expenses by November.

Meanwhile, the Interfax news agency quoted an official at a branch of Ilyushin, which makes the jets – Ilyushin Finance Co. director Alexander Rubtsov – as saying it could take one to six weeks to fix the problem.

Officials ordered the planes grounded Monday upon recommendation from an oversight body that said some had experienced brake failure.

During a trip to Finland earlier this month, President Vladimir Putin’s government jet had to abort takeoff after the Il-96-300 suffered an unspecified mechanical problem. Putin returned to Moscow on a different plane.

ITAR-Tass reported that 13 of the planes were in service before the grounding – six at Aeroflot, five at other commercial airlines and two, including Putin’s plane, at the state transport company Rossiya.

Aeroflot is using other planes to replace Il-96-300s on flights to New Delhi, Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, Seoul, London, Nice and Geneva and the Russian cities of Khabarovsk and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, ITAR-Tass quotes spokeswoman Irina Dannenberg as saying. She said all flights to Hanoi and some to Beijing, Seoul, Toronto and Washington had been canceled.