Five Russian carriers return leased aircraft

A newly-revealed Russian document lists the airlines that returned aircraft to foreign lessors and shows how the authorities saw such moves.

The letter indicates that Rosaviatsia considers that the Russian operators of these aircraft returned them to lessors. Technically, what happened is that lessors seized these aircraft when they were in those third-party countries. According to previous statements from Russian officials, a total of 78 aircraft formerly with Russia’s airlines were seized by lessors – or returned to them.

The returned aircraft were operated by five Russian carriers: Azur Air, Nordwind, Royal Flight, iFly and Pegas Fly. The newly-revealed Russian document shows that Rosaviatsia, the country’s aviation regulator, saw this overseas storage with some scepticism.

We have seen in some detail the challenges the airline industry faced, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. For airlines in Europe, Canada, the US and other sanctioning countries, it meant no flights to Russia or Russian overflights. For airlines in Russia, it meant not flying to or over these countries. But there are more challenges for Russia’s airlines.

International lessors asked for aircraft they had with Russian carriers to be returned to them. This was because these lessors could no longer have contracts with these Russian carriers. Soon afterwards, the aviation regulators of Bermuda and Ireland revoked the airworthiness certificates of these aircraft. Insurers cancelled their contracts relating to these aircraft, as well.

Russian airlines also offered to buy these aircraft from lessors. However, such sales would be against the sanctions that are in force in the countries where these lessors are based. We have seen that there was a small exception to this, involving aircraft whose leases expired before Russia’s invasion. But this is something that only affected a small number of aircraft.

With no sign of a resolution to the conflict, Russian airlines will struggle to maintain and find parts of the aircraft they haven’t returned. But we will also have to look out for any repercussions towards airlines that returned aircraft to lessors.