Russia to Seize 500 Foreign-Owned Airliners Leased to Aeroflot Worth $10 Billion

Owners want to terminate the lease to comply with sanctions. Russia says "we'll just keep them, thanks"

Very small compensation for the $300bn in stolen foreign currency

Editor’s note: Without these planes Russian air traffic would collapse, so Russia will of course not allow DC sanctions to cause that, especially after $300 billion of its own money has been stolen.


 

Source: Business Insider

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that will allow Russian airlines to take control of hundreds of the Western-built planes leased from international firms, Russian news agency TASS reported, per The Wall Street Journal.

The jets will be added to the country’s aircraft register and be deployed on domestic routesaccording to Reuters.

The news comes on the heels of the island of Bermuda revoking the airworthiness certificates for over 700 leased aircraft in Russia, [Overnight 700 aircraft are suddenly no longer airworthy, LOL?] which went into effect Saturday night.

The battle between Russia and lessors has been ongoing since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, with the EU forcing aircraft leasing companies to cancel their contracts with Russian airlines by March 28, meaning those foreign planes need to be returned to their owners.

However, Russian authorities and airlines have made the task difficult, including airspace closures and a ban on most international flights.

Meanwhile, European and US sanctions have cut Russian airlines off from planemakers Airbus and Boeing, which produced the bulk of the leased aircraft. That means the two Western companies cannot provide support in the form of maintenance, spare parts, or updates for the complex machines, which could pose a risk for passengers and airline staff, the Wall Street Journal noted.

As Boeing and Airbus are banned from shipping spare parts to Russia, this could force airlines to turn to risky alternatives, like buying uncertified supplies from China or “cannibalizing” parts from planes on the ground, including lessor jets.

According to aviation consultancy Ishka, $10 billion worth of planes is stranded in Russia.

“The lessors may end up having to take a writeoff,” Nick Cunningham, an analyst with Agency Partners, told Bloomberg.


CNBC:

There are some 728 Western-built aircraft in the country’s airlines’ fleets, 515 of them leased by foreign lessors, according to Jefferies.

9 Comments
  1. Sally Snyder says

    Here is an interesting historical look at what Putin really wants for Russia:

    https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2022/03/a-historical-look-at-what-putin-wants.html

    Putin has been warning the world for 15 years that Ukraine is his “red line in the sand”.

    1. Ultrafart the Brave says

      Hey, the Deep State internet trolls lie for a living too – but at least they get paid.

      Not much, admittedly (times are hard).

  2. Ultrafart the Brave says

    … and so it begins.

    Do the Western poodles really think they can win this game?

  3. guest says

    (all is fair in war; and all that hot air)

    But what happened to the Russian industry that used to produce civilian aeroplanes ? Why is AeroFlot using (and paying for) foreign-made flying machines ?

    Russia is producing (and selling) very good military planes, it is time to bring the civilian aeroplane manufacturing to that level. Perhaps this war will force Russia to do the right thing and develop domestic production of many things (a fascist & bolshevik concept).

    1. Geraldo says

      The MC21 is an excellent passenger aircraft, very high standard but it got caught up in previus sanctions and was left high and dry on the wings, they have overcome that by developing expertise in alloys and composites so I would expect it to play a larger role in the near future

  4. Commenter says

    Nice. A fair response to outrageous sanctions against Russia. Imagine if half of those sanctions were used against arabs including syrian criminal lords of Haiti.

  5. XSFRGR says

    Way to go, Russia !!!!

  6. Juan says

    That plus depositing all foreign debt interest payments in rubles in Russia will make up for far more than those 300 bn. Do you really think Russia waited 8 years for this for stupid reasons? of course thousands of civilians were killed by azovists, but saving them was not their duty anyway? The only grave mistake was not letting/helping the donbass rebels liberate more territory, including Mariupol.

  7. Shiek Shanko says

    Well done,

Reply To Shiek Shanko
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