Aeroflot, Russia's flagship airline, is keen to explore the potential of the A380 superjumbo aircraft, Airbus vice president Chris Buckley said.

"We have started a communication with the airline, we are studying the possibility of Aeroflot's use of the A380," Buckley told journalists on Wednesday at the MAKS airshow near Moscow.

"This does not mean that we will sell any A380s tomorrow."

Aeroflot, which historically has bought the bulk of its fleet from Airbus, has favoured arch rival Boeing more recently as its preferred supplier.

The carrier, which will start to receive a long-delayed order for 22 Boeing 787 Dreamliners when deliveries finally get under way next month, in March signed a deal to take eight Boeing 777s worth more than US$2 billion.

The RBC business daily reported on Wednesday Aeroflot was mulling the purchase of five A380s by 2015 to help meet a target of 70 million passengers by 2025, up from 11.3 million in 2010.

The newspaper also reported Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport -- Aeroflot's hub -- would need to be modernised to be able to receive the aircraft, which can sit up to 850 passengers in one potential variant.

An Aeroflot spokesman declined to comment on the report.

In April, Aeroflot chief executive Vitaly Saveliev told the French newspaper La Tribune it did not need the A380.

Both Aeroflot and Boeing said at the MAKS airshow they saw Russia outperforming the global market in terms of new orders over the next two decades, partly due to the need to replace outdated Soviet-era aircraft.

Buckley said he expected Russia's fleet of planes to grow 5 percent annually over the next 20 years, while Boeing executives said on Tuesday that Russia should buy 800 planes worth around US$80 billion over the same period.

"There are a few Soviet-era planes in service that need to be replaced," Buckley said.

Russian planes have been involved in several fatal crashes over the past 18 months, most notably the incident that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 other passengers in April 2010.