The state will help Russian air carriers to negotiate with foreign lessors

The government has allocated 300 billion rubles for the purchase of foreign-leased aircraft. This was announced by the head of the Ministry of Transport Vitaly Savelyev at an expanded meeting of the State Duma Committee on Transport. The problem is that such an amount, for all its seeming significance, is clearly not enough to buy out all the airliners. But even if some of the aircraft can be registered in Russia, they will still not be able to fly on all routes.

Of the possible advantages for consumers: the cost of tickets to popular destinations may decrease. Oleg Panteleev, executive director of the Aviaport agency, told MK about this.

– In general, there are now 1,167 mainline passenger aircraft in the country. Most of this fleet is foreign-made, a considerable part of them is leased, and not financially, but operationally.

– What’s the difference?

– When it comes to financial leasing, the lessor airline signs an agreement that at the end of the lease term, the airline becomes the owner of the aircraft. In fact, this is a kind of purchase of an aircraft in installments. When it comes to operating leasing, the lessor remains the owner. It’s more like a lease.

– Assess Russia’s chances for an early purchase of aircraft.

– Based on the fact that now there are sanctions that prohibit the supply of aircraft to our country, and these sanctions apply to European leasing companies, there are no opportunities to buy these aircraft directly. The issues of revising sanctions restrictions were considered in order to enable Russian airlines to buy out aircraft, including those under operating lease.

Air carriers with leasing companies have conducted, are conducting and will probably continue to conduct negotiations on this topic in the future. As of today, the situation is somewhat better with the repurchase of aircraft that were financially leased or owned by subsidiaries of Russian leasing companies. Now it is not necessary to say that it will be possible to buy all the planes just about. This is a negotiation process, which, unfortunately, can last for months and even years.

– Why did the government decide to help air carriers with money?

– Foreign leasing companies are interested in getting adequate money for their assets. And the Russian aviation industry, for its part, is interested in settling relations with leasing companies, solving the problem of dual registration of aircraft and being able to dispose of these assets as their own property: if necessary, sell them, use them as collateral, etc. Based on this, the government is ready to support the processes related to the purchase of aircraft, including by providing money for the purchase itself.

– Will the amounts be provided free of charge?

– No. It is assumed that the carriers, which have to pay lease payments for these assets, will gradually pay for those aircraft that they plan to buy from foreign leasing companies. The interest rate will be low, below the market, but the money will still have to be returned to the budget.

– Will our airlines take advantage of this opportunity?

– I believe that if we are talking about specific aircraft that are liquid, which are of interest to airlines, carriers will undoubtedly take advantage of such an attractive opportunity. Several Russian airlines are already negotiating with leasing companies to negotiate the purchase of these aircraft. But each case has its own peculiarities. When it comes to operating leases, you need to justify the cost at which you will buy the asset. There is a bidding field here.

– Will 300 billion rubles be enough to buy all the planes?

– Of course not. The government has earmarked funds. If a company structures a deal to buy out its aircraft, then it has the right to apply for state support. But, it is clear that the cost of all air “foreign cars” that are in Russia is much more than 300 billion rubles.

– If the company buys the aircraft, will all sanctions be automatically lifted from the aircraft?

– There are countries that have banned flights in their airspace for all aircraft of Russian airlines without exception – regardless of whose ownership they are. There is no way to completely solve the problem here.

– Let’s say our companies have bought the airliners. Air tickets in this case will be cheaper?

– If we manage to buy planes out of leasing, this will at least make it possible to increase supply on popular international routes, for example, to Turkey. And if supply goes up, prices will, in theory, go down. But if market factors affecting prices are transparent and understandable, then non-market factors cannot be predicted properly.