Russia lost 76 passenger planes due to sanctions – Kommersant

Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev said that Russia has lost 76 passenger aircraft as a result of sanctions imposed against its aviation industry.

“We were unexpectedly caught off guard by the decisions to take away the planes. In total, we lost 76 passenger ships,” said Mr. Savelyev at the opening of the exhibition “Russia on the Move” at VDNKh (quote from “RIA News”).

Sanctions against the Russian aviation industry were introduced after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine. In particular, the United States and the EU banned the supply of aircraft and components to the Russian Federation, and also obliged lessors to return aircraft already leased (their number, according to Bloomberg, amounted to up to 40% of the Russian fleet). As a result, foreign ships of Russian airlines were arrested abroad.

As Kommersant learned on November 16, GTLK abandoned plans announced in the summer to increase leasing rates by 30% for 37 aircraft owned by its subsidiary GTLK Europe. Most of these airliners are operated by Aeroflot and Rossiya, as well as S7, Aurora and Yamal. A compromise, according to Kommersant, was achieved thanks to the intervention of the Ministry of Transport. Some Kommersant sources call this decision non-market, but others believe that the state-owned company “will not be lost.”

More details in the material “Leasing landed softly”.

Erdni Kagaltynov