Russia lost 76 passenger aircraft due to sanctions

Russian Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev has revealed that Russia has lost 76 passenger planes under sanctions imposed on the aviation industry.

Source: Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency Kommersant

Quote: "Their decision to seize [our] aircraft took us by surprise. We lost a total of 76 passenger vessels," Savelyev said.

Details: The report noted that sanctions against the Russian aviation industry followed the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In particular, the US and the EU banned the supply of aircraft and spare parts to Russia and ordered leasing companies to recover the planes they had previously leased (their number, Bloomberg said, accounted for up to 40% of the Russian air fleet).

Furthermore, foreign vessels of Russian airlines have been ordered to be arrested abroad.

"We learned on 16 November that GTLK (Russia's State Transport Leasing Company, which is the largest of its kind in the country – Ekonomichna Pravda) has abandoned its plans announced in the summer to raise leasing rates for 37 aircraft owned by its subsidiary GTLK Europe by 30%. The majority of these aircraft were operated by Aeroflot and Rossiya, S7, Aurora and Yamal companies. The compromise, as Kommersant reports, could be reached owing to the intervention of the transport ministry," the report said.

Background:

• In October, Russia filed a complaint with the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) alleging violations of air traffic rules by Western countries.
• With Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, comprehensive sanctions were imposed on the Russian aviation industry, closing the airspace over many countries to Russian aircraft.
• However, the sanctions have had a more sensitive impact on the state of the aviation industry. Russian aircraft became unsafe to fly in 2023. Aviation incidents occur regularly.
• Nevertheless, most aircraft continue to fly, although they are cut off from essential software updates and maintenance necessary to guarantee their airworthiness.
• Meanwhile, Russia has resorted to concealing aircraft malfunctions.
• In particular, the Russian airline Aeroflot has issued an internal regulation requiring senior flight attendants to enter data on technical failures and malfunctions related to cabin equipment in the Cabin Log Book only if approved by the aircraft captain. The same policy exists at other Russian airlines.

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