The head of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation Vitaly Savelyev spoke about the progress of negotiations with foreign lessors who demand that Russian airlines return aircraft to them in connection with sanctions
The Russian authorities will have to resolve the issue of repurchasing more than 500 aircraft leased from foreign companies. This was announced during a speech in the Federation Council by the head of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation Vitaly Savelyev, leading Russian news agencies report.
“First, we need to decide with the government what to do with the airlines, which we, in general, encouraged to leave the planes. That is, the repurchase of aircraft should be or should not be. Requests have already been received on [возврат] more than 500 foreign-made aircraft. I’ll just tell you the amount of the buyback – it’s $20 billion in residual value, if you buy back what we underpaid. This is a very large amount,” the minister said.
Savelyev added that Russian air carriers are trying to negotiate with lessors on the purchase of aircraft, but to no avail. According to him, the company’s lease payments must continue to be paid, but the lessors do not want to sell the aircraft.
The minister called the lessors’ demand for the return of the aircraft a political decision.
“If you give them 500 aircraft, they won’t be able to remarket them, they won’t be able to resell them, that is, they just take them away, because such a political decision,” Kommersant quoted him as saying.
Earlier it became known that Russian air carriers lost 78 aircraft – they were arrested abroad in connection with sanctions restrictions against Russia imposed due to hostilities in Ukraine. The arrests of the liners of Russian airlines took place, including in “friendly countries” – in Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Prior to this, 111 Russian airlines had 1,367 aircraft.
On March 14, a law signed by President Vladimir Putin was published on the official portal of legal information, according to which the rights to foreign aircraft leased by airlines from the Russian Federation can be officially registered in the country.
The vast majority of foreign aircraft used by Russian airlines were registered in Bermuda. Since March 13, the Bermuda authorities have suspended the validity of airworthiness certificates for these aircraft, after which they continued to fly on an essentially illegal basis.
Recall that within the framework of sanctions restrictions against Russia due to hostilities in Ukraine, the European Union imposed a ban on leasing aircraft to Russian airlines. A ban was also imposed on the sale of spare parts for aircraft.
