Russia’s largest carrier Aeroflot has selected a local supplier to provide MRO software for its fleet, replacing the Swiss-AS AMOS it currently uses.

Engineering Center for Information-Analytical Systems (EC IAS) will deliver the replacement software. The new Russian-made product will manage continuing airworthiness management, maintenance and logistics and is expected to become functional starting in 2025, Aeroflot reported June 1.

Aeroflot group currently uses AMOS to maintain its fleet of almost 350 aircraft in the parent airline and across its two subsidiaries Rossiya and Pobeda. The use of foreign-made MRO software has become challenging after Western sanctions banned companies from providing maintenance services to Russian airlines over a year ago following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Aeroflot’s deputy head for information technologies, Anton Matskevich, said EC IAS was selected because the IT company had already developed maintenance software for Russian aircraft manufacturer Irkut Corporation. The OEM produces Superjet 100 and MC-21 commercial airliners which are operated and ordered by Aeroflot Group.

AMOS also is used by Aeroflot’s major domestic rivals S7 and Ural Airlines as well as by Russian MRO providers TS-Technics and UTG M&E.

According to Matskevich, the development of the new MRO software is part of the group’s 10-billion-ruble ($123 million) effort to substitute Western-made software in many aspects of its business. Aeroflot had already migrated from U.S.-based Sabre to the Russian Leonardo booking system. 

The group is deploying a Russian-designed digital datalink Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) in 56 airports across its flight network to transmit short text messages between aircraft and ground controllers via airband radio or satellite. The service was previously provided by SITA, which will completely withdraw from Russia starting July 1, the Aeroflot deputy CEO said.

The group also plans to replace SITA software on more than 4,000 tablets for Aeroflot and Rossiya cabin crews by the end of the first quarter of 2024 and to introduce a joint database of unruly passengers.