An Aeroflot Airbus A330-300 has flown to Tehran for maintenance by Mahan Air, Iran's largest privately owned airline. The aircraft is being sent to receive repairs by Mahan Air, Iran's largest private carrier.

The 11-year-old plane is to maintain the aircraft chassis racks.

This week marks the first time a Russian airline has sent one of its aircraft to Iran for repair. The two countries reportedly signed an agreement in the summer of 2022 in which Iran agreed to supply Russian airlines with spare aircraft parts and provide maintenance services for Russian planes.

Aeroflot's previous maintenance partners are no longer serving the airlines following the EU closing its airspace to Russian carriers following Russia's military attack on Ukraine. International sanctions further prohibit all maintenance, support, insurance, and leasing services to Russian airlines.

What is getting repaired?

On April 5th, the Airbus A330-300 widebody (registered RA-73700) flew to Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport, where technical specialists of the largest Iranian carrier Mahan Air will reportedly service the aircraft. The landing gear replacement procedure is a scheduled operation performed on Airbus A330 aircraft every ten years or every 20,000 flight cycles, whichever comes first.

The aircraft departed Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport on schedule at 21:25 on April 5th. Bearing flight number SU584, the plane flew for three and a half hours over Baku and the Caspian Sea before landing at its originally scheduled arrival time at 01:25 the following morning.

 Aeroflot sent an Airbus A330-300 with the registration code RA-73700 to Iran
Photo: FlightRadar24.com

Why Tehran for maintenance?

According to Russian State media outlet RBC, the choice of Iran as a maintenance location is because the country does not support anti-Russian sanctions and "is not afraid of secondary sanctions from the United States or the European Union." Iran has acquired extensive competence in repairing aircraft and their components over decades of economic blockade by the West. The risk of the aircraft's owners seizing the aircraft is minimal.

Previously, Aeroflot used maintenance providers, including German provider Lufthansa Technik, which supported hundreds of aircraft of Russian carriers, including Aeroflot, for more than 15 years, before ceasing business. Aeroflot signed an agreement to maintain and overhaul aircraft components with Hong Kong HAECO in the summer of 2021. The deal was never implemented due to international sanctions taken against Russia.

Get the latest aviation news straight to your inbox: Sign up for our newsletters today.

Domestically, the Aeroflot Technics provider, also part of the Aeroflot Group, performed more than 300 forms of periodic aircraft maintenance in 2022. On March 20th, the press service of Aeroflot reported that the group's provider independently replaced the chassis racks on A330 aircraft for the first time in the Russian Federation. Aeroflot Technics carried out the work at its hangar complexes at Sheremetyevo Airport. The replacement of all the struts (the nose and two main struts) was reportedly completed within two months on three Aeroflot aircraft.

In addition to its leased aircraft, the airline has five company-owned Airbus A330-300s active and scheduled for retirement in December of this year. A further three are due to be retired at the end of 2024. According to state-sponsored media, Aeroflot has 178 aircraft manufactured by Airbus and Boeing as of April 1st.

Sources: The Moscow Times, Aviaci Online, RBC