War in Ukraine: Russian airlines won't release Western-owned planes

Created: 04/04/2022, 14:34

By: Markus Hofstetter

A Boeing 747-8F of the Russian airline Air Bridge Cargo (archive photo) © Markus Mainka/imago

Russian airlines apparently flew planes to Russia in the dark and in the dark against the will of their foreign owners.

It was like in the Wild West.

Munich – The western economic sanctions* in the wake of the Ukraine conflict* are hitting Russia hard.

The Russian airlines are also fighting for survival.

Not only are they cut off from spare parts for their Airbus and Boeing aircraft.

Another problem is that in many cases they do not own the planes.

The owners are Western leasing companies that lease the planes to Russian airlines.

Many of these machines are registered abroad, especially in Bermuda.

It's worth billions.

According to the aviation consultancy IBA, Russian companies have leased a total of 523 passenger and cargo jets from foreign aircraft financiers.

According to the aeronautical data provider Cirium, these have a total market value of ten billion dollars.

Leasing aircraft: Russian airlines are tough as nails

Around five billion dollars are accounted for by European companies, many of which are based in Ireland.

According to the IBA, the Dutch AerCap alone, the world's largest leasing company for aircraft, has leased 142 aircraft to Russian companies.

As a result of the sanctions, leasing companies had to terminate contracts with Russian airlines by March 31.

Actually, the leased aircraft should now be returned.

But Aeroflot & Co didn't think of it.

They reacted quickly and, contrary to international rules, brought them, if they were not already in the country, to Russia, where they are safe from foreign access.

It was a successful action.

According to

, the rental companies have only managed to repossess around two dozen machines.

Leasing aircraft: Russian cargo company brings freighters to safety

It was obviously like in the Wild West.

This is shown by a case described by the

.

Singapore-based BOC Aviation has leased three Boeing 747-8F freighters to Russia's Air Bridge Cargo.

On March 3, the leasing company instructed the partner to cease operations with the three aircraft as soon as possible, and by March 7 at the latest.

The reason for this was that an insurance company had canceled the contract for the three machines.

The planes, which were stationed in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Zhengzhou, were to be parked outside of Russia.

But Air Bridge Cargo had something else in mind.

Because on March 6, BOC Aviation used the Flightradar tracking service to observe how the planes were moving from Shanghai and Zhengzhou towards Moscow.

On the same day, BOC Aviation learned from Hong Kong Airport's website that the third freighter was scheduled to take off shortly after 11 p.m. local time, probably also towards Moscow.

Leasing company cancels contracts and fixes planes

In order to prevent this, BOC Aviation terminated the leasing contract for the aircraft with immediate effect and demanded that it be returned along with all the necessary documents.

At the same time, the aviation authority in Bermuda, where the jet was registered, withdrew the license.

In a phone call, Air Bridge Cargo asked BOC Aviation for approval to let this third plane take off towards Russia *, the leasing company's lawyers write, according to the

.

Only when this requirement had been met would they have been willing to return the other two aircraft.

BOC Aviation refused the request and grounded the plane in Hong Kong after a US court issued an order to that effect.

The Boeing, valued at $148 million in court documents, is now in San Bernardino, California.

But the customer still does not want to give out the other two freighters.

Leasing aircraft: Russian airline with night-and-fog campaign

The

describes a similar case.

At the beginning of March, an Airbus A321 Neo from Aeroflot, which belongs to the Irish lessor SMBC Aviation Capital, is to be arrested in Egypt.

However, the machine took off again shortly after landing with the destination Moscow.

He no longer had a valid license at the time.

Aircraft financiers are now in a bind.

How do you get your plane in Russia?

Especially since the Russian President Vladimir Putin* signed a law according to which these are transferred to the Russian aircraft register and a Russian certificate of airworthiness is issued to them.

In doing so, the Kremlin is circumventing the fact that Bermuda's Aviation Inspectorate previously grounded all Russian aircraft registered there in order to keep them grounded. 

In many cases, the lessors only have the hope that the Russians will take good care of their aircraft and that the Ukraine war* will be over quickly so that conditions can normalize again.

But until then they must fear enormous losses.

, AerCap has

now reported damage to the amount of 3.5 billion dollars to its insurance company.