As Russia's economy gets pummeled by increasingly severe western sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine, the country's crucial airlines have been essentially cut off from much of the world.
But that is the least of the industry's problems. Russia's domestic airline industry could soon become a mere shell of its former self due to restrictions on its operations.
Sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union mean that the world's two major aircraft makers, Boeing (BA) and Airbus (EADSF), can no longer supply spare parts or maintenance support for Russian airlines. The same is true of jet engine makers.
"Within a year Russia will cease to have any kind of viable airline industry," said Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory.
He said the country's airline industry could soon find itself somewhere between the heavily sanctioned industries in Iran and North Korea.
That poses a serious problem for Russia's overall economic activity.
Russia is the world's largest nation by landmass, more than twice the size of the continental United States. It needs to have a viable airline industry to keep its economy working, said Charles Lichfield, the deputy director of GeoEconomics Center at the Atlantic Council, an international think tank.
"It is an important part of Russia's economy. They need that backbone. They need some basic domestic [airline] industry to remain in place," Lichfield added.