The planes flew to the court – Kommersant FM

Insurers are demanding $10 billion for planes stuck in Russia. The claim was filed by the world’s largest lessors, who did not receive back more than 200 aircraft, writes Reuters. The day before, a London court decided to consider the case in British jurisdiction, since in Russia the plaintiffs are “unlikely to achieve a fair trial.” Some lessors argued that the UK’s decision was contrary to the terms of their policies. As RBC calculated, after the imposition of sanctions, Russian carriers bought and transferred 40% of the entire foreign aircraft fleet to the domestic registry.

Lessors have not been able to obtain insurance payments for the remaining sides for more than a year. The partners refuse to treat “confiscation” as an insurance event. It is unlikely that a London court will think otherwise, says Alexander Lanetsky, CEO of Friendly Avia Support: “Two years ago, in 2022, the government banned the implementation of Western sanctions. Even if the theoretical “Wings of Samara” would like to return the planes, this would most likely risk criminal prosecution. The Federal Air Transport Agency was told “the lease must be paid.” You need to open an account in the name of the lessor in a Russian bank and make payments to it.

Before Aeroflot bought the first aircraft, as of the summer of 2023 there were 875 ships with dual registration. Currently, a little more than 400 aircraft remain unredeemed. The planes were actually purchased with money from the Russian budget by companies to which this budget was allocated. Why don’t they buy the rest? Because there is no money. Some of the planes were sold, but some of the planes were not bought from them. The court insists on this, they say, wait guys, you say that they were stolen from you, but here the planes have been sold, here you are negotiating, but here the status is generally unclear, go figure it out. The fact that “Wings of Samara” does not have the money to buy them back is not an insured event. In fact, the client turned out to be insolvent.

There is one more thing, over the past two years there has not been a single bankruptcy of airlines, because the government forbade them to go bankrupt. The big victory is that the case will be tried in London. In Moscow, the review would be very quick, the person is fulfilling the sanctions, which means a criminal case must be opened against him.”

According to Kommersant, in March the Ministry of Transport asked to allocate another 295 billion rubles from the National Welfare Fund. for the purchase of aircraft. This is approximately the same amount as the National Welfare Fund allocated for these purposes in 2023. Aeroflot then received more than 90 aircraft, S7 – 45, Ural Airlines – 19. The Aurora company, as the media wrote, bought eight aircraft.

The use of this fleet even now carries legal risks, says Fyodor Borisov, head of the analytical center of the State Research Institute of Civil Aviation: “Indeed, very great efforts were made to buy out part of the existing fleet. At the same time, legal risks still remain, and they are very high. The question is not, for example, not to use planes abroad for which they could not pay.

Claims can also be made for aircraft that have been cleaned. Russia has, of course, become a hostage of the situation here. It’s surprising that when a person who stole something makes titanic efforts to pay for it, this doesn’t happen.

For a lessor, of course, money is always the better option. Because the plane will have to look again for where to attach it, and conclude a new contract, although if there is a shortage, he can take the plane and offer it at a higher price, but, taking into account the circumstances that existed, questions about maintenance will be asked en masse.” .

The media wrote a year ago that insurers are facing a “mega-trial” due to foreign aircraft remaining in Russia. At that time, the world’s largest lessor, Irish AerCap, filed a claim for $3.5 billion. Reuters clarifies that disputes on about 100 aircraft were resolved. In particular, the Irish lessor SMBC aviation received insurance compensation in the amount of over $700 million.

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Elizaveta Skobtsova