Sanctions have big impact on (Russian) aviation

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has triggered extensive sanctions for Russia. One of them is the ban on the export, sale or transfer of all aircraft, aircraft parts and equipment. The ban also extends to repair, maintenance, and financial services, including aircraft leasing.

Next to this, the EU but also Canada, closed their air space for Russian carriers with the United States to follow, forcing Russian airlines to cancel large parts of their operations. However, the pain is not only felt by Russian carriers as Russia has closed its air space for EU and Canadian carriers as well, which means longer flying times to Asia, and of course not being able to serve Russia anymore.

As mentioned above, aircraft leasing is also forbidden due to the sanctions and the (Western) leasing companies now need to terminate the leases of aircraft to Russian operators before 28 March. On paper, this sounds easy but with the air space closed it will be difficult for the lessors to repossess the aircraft and ferry them out of Russia.

According to Air Finance Journal, Western leasing companies have around 480 aircraft leased to Russian carriers. AerCap is by far the largest lessor involved with 149 aircraft, followed by SMBC Aviation Capital with 34 aircraft and Air Lease Corporation closing the top-3 with 25 aircraft.

Due to the air space being closed and the termination of leases, several aircraft that have been stuck in Western airports have already been seized, like a Boeing B737-800 of Pobeda at Istanbul and a Nordwind Airlines B777-300ER at Mexico City.

Photo by Aeroflot.