At 283 aircraft, Airbus’s fleet in Russia trails the 296 airliners Boeing has sold into the country. But Airbus vows to overtake its U.S. rival by next summer. “We keep Boeing on their toes,” Christopher Buckley, Airbus executive vice president for Europe, told reporters on August 26 at the MAKS airshow near Moscow.

Buckley expressed confidence that Airbus, which flew the A350-900 to the MAKS event for the first time, will grow its market share in Russia despite current economic sanctions against the country and issues affecting its top two airlines.

Flagship carrier Aeroflot is re-evaluating an order for 14 A350-900s and eight A350-800s following Airbus’s decision last year to cancel the -800 variant. The airline “has already converted some [-800s],” Buckley said, adding “there are a last few we yet need to manage.”

A350 deliveries to Aeroflot are still planned for 2018. However, Buckley acknowledged that talks with the airline are ongoing, and delivery times can be adjusted. Last year, Aeroflot received approval from its directors to postpone the first delivery until 2023.

At the same time, Russia’s second largest airline—Transaero—is struggling financially, and has taken steps to reduce capacity and postpone deliveries of some aircraft types. But the carrier also plans to replace larger Boeing types with leased Airbus A321s. Buckley acknowledged that some new-aircraft deliveries to Transaero might be postponed. “We have valid contracts in place for A321, A320neo, A330 and A330neo aircraft. All these contracts are fully up to date with the airline,” he said.

Logic would suggest that Transaero will progressively replace older Boeing aircraft with newer Airbus models, Buckley said. “They have a lot of older aircraft with Transaero,” he said. “So the average age of the Airbus Russian fleet is markedly less.”

Because of Russia’s current economic situation, Airbus is trying to be flexible when adjusting earlier agreements with Russian carriers, Buckley related. “Some do not have the ability to fund deliveries. We are prepared to be flexible, because the Russian market is very important to us,” he said. “We are ready to take whatever risk it might be to keep our market share at 50 percent and going forward.”

Airbus forecasts that 1,300 airliners will be sold into the Russian and Commonwealth of Independent States market over the next 20 years. “This means 600 to 700 aircraft for Airbus, which is a huge market,” Buckley remarked. Sanctions the U.S. and European Union imposed against Russia following its annexation of Crimea have thus far not directly affected airlines, he said.