Russia announced in March the introduction of a new controversial bill, which allowed the country to retain all leased aircraft that were on Russian territory.
This would ensure that the Russian companies could re-register already leased aircraft from foreign suppliers. That way, the planes would get Russian certificates to continue flying on.
There has previously been talk that over 500 planes could have been lost for good, but now Russia is said to have returned some of them.
Accessed document
Initially, Russia chose to keep the planes in response to the West’s harsh sanctions against the warring country, as well as to be able to maintain the offer of domestic flights.
The sanctions prevented Russia from being able to receive both aircraft and parts for the aircraft, which would have prevented important maintenance.
Five Russian companies are now said to have returned well over twenty leased aircraft to the original foreign suppliers, according to Reuters.
The news agency has seen a document confirming this, dated March 9, 2022.
Located in Turkey
The document from the Russian aviation authorities Rosaviatsia, includes the airlines Azur Air, iFly, Nordwind, Pegas Fly and Royal Flight.
– Jets by some operators … with foreign registration are currently located at foreign airports, including in Turkey, to transfer them to landlords in advance of maintenance, it emerged from the document that Reuters has gained access to.
Exactly why the five companies chose to give up the planes is not known, and the agency has not succeeded in getting answers from the various companies, except for one:
“The fate of the planes seized abroad is unknown to us,” Nordwind said in a written response to Reuters, refraining from further comments.
According to Russian Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev, about 400 planes have remained in Russia, while another 78 planes have been seized while outside the country.
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