Aeroflot Automates Flight Planning
Rossiya Airlines has successfully tested the Intelligent Flight Scheduling Module, known as MISHA, and the Aeroflot Group now plans to scale the system across all of its airlines.
The Intelligent Flight Scheduling Module implemented by Rossiya Airlines automatically assigns aircraft to routes while accounting for technical characteristics of individual airframes, route network constraints and potential disruptions such as adverse weather. The pilot project has already been declared successful: the platform can schedule 2,500 flights across a 10-day period in just five minutes.
The significance of the project extends well beyond a single airline. The Aeroflot Group is the largest player in Russia’s aviation market. In 2025, the group carried 55.3 million passengers, including 42 million on domestic routes alone. Deploying the system within the group could therefore affect millions of passengers and a substantial share of the country’s route network. For Russia’s IT industry, the project marks a transition from import substitution toward the creation of proprietary intelligent systems. Aeroflot had previously announced plans to fully migrate to domestically developed software.
For passengers, the impact will be indirect but noticeable: flight schedules are expected to become more stable, disruptions should decline and operational delays could be reduced. More broadly, the project strengthens the technological independence of Russia’s aviation sector under sanctions conditions.
From Rossiya to the Entire Fleet
In the near term, MISHA is expected to scale across the Aeroflot Group, allowing Aeroflot, Rossiya and Pobeda to operate within a unified digital fleet-management environment. That should reduce the burden on dispatch divisions, accelerate decision-making during schedule disruptions and improve operational resilience during weather-related or technical restrictions.
“The first effect was payroll savings, and we reassigned released specialists to other production tasks within the company. The second effect was eliminating aircraft planning errors and avoiding potential costs. For example, an aircraft requiring maintenance after a flight will no longer be sent to an airport where it cannot be serviced. The third effect is faster schedule recovery and, accordingly, shorter waiting times for passengers during disruptions caused, for example, by adverse weather,” said Rossiya Airlines CEO Yan Burg.
The platform aligns with the broader digital transformation of Russia’s transportation sector. The Ministry of Transport has reported the deployment of domestic IT systems for airports and airlines. Once fully validated within the Aeroflot Group, the technology could spread to other Russian carriers, similar to the planned rollout of the Kupol platform designed to support airworthiness management.
The export potential remains limited but real. Russian aviation software could attract interest from countries with restricted access to Western systems. However, international expansion would require certification, proven reliability and compatibility with global aviation standards.
From Import Substitution to AI
The development of IT infrastructure in Russian aviation has progressed in stages. In 2022 and 2023, Aeroflot launched a large-scale import substitution campaign after foreign vendors exited the market. The carrier migrated to the Russian-developed Leonardo booking system and replaced SITA with a domestic messaging platform. In 2023, the airline announced plans to invest more than 10 billion rubles (about $132 million) into replacing foreign software.
Later, Aeroflot transitioned onboard services to Russian software platforms, and in 2025 the airline connected to a domestic ACARS data transmission system designed to replace foreign communication channels between aircraft and ground services.
That same year, Rossiya introduced MISHA and demonstrated the practical effects of operational automation. According to ORS Aero, Russian airlines are increasingly using AI technologies for risk management, resource allocation and fleet operations, with the focus shifting from customer-facing services toward the operational core of the airline business.
The Future of Aviation Software
The deployment of MISHA demonstrates that Russian aviation digitalization is entering a more mature phase, moving beyond emergency replacement of foreign systems toward the development of proprietary tools that improve operational efficiency. For Aeroflot, automated scheduling is expected to become a competitive advantage in an environment defined by a complex route network and heavy domestic traffic loads.
Over the next several years, airlines are likely to accelerate adoption of algorithms for fleet management, crew scheduling, demand forecasting and schedule recovery after disruptions. For the IT sector, projects of this type help build competencies applicable across other transportation segments, from railways to urban transit systems. For passengers, the outcome is straightforward: flights should become more predictable and delays less frequent.
