Today, you should know that half of the fleet of Russian airlines is leased from foreign companies. Just over 500 aircraft flying on Russian territory belong to Western companies for a value of 12 billion euros.
Ireland, where the largest leasing companies are located, is particularly affected by this problem. Based in Dublin, the largest company in the sector, AerCap leases to Russian or Ukrainian companies, 152 planes: value two billion euros.
To better suffocate the Russian companies Aeroflot, S7 Airlines, Metrojet or Donavia, all Western aircraft rental companies have been asked to repatriate their aircraft by March 28, that is to say next Monday. Except that the case is far from being heard, since a few days ago, Vladimir Poutine validated a law which authorizes the Russian companies to make re-register in Russia the planes rented near these foreign companies.
This response from the Kremlin will allow these companies to obtain Russian airworthiness certificates, and to continue to operate these aircraft on domestic routes, by circumventing the suspension of airworthiness certificates, decided by the various civil aviation authorities in worldwide. Beyond this question, once the contracts are terminated, the Russian companies will no longer have to make payments for the rental of these aircraft, or even to maintain them. Recovering them will take months, acknowledges in the New York Timeson March 12, one of the managers of AerCap.
The other risk is that these planes will never be returned, and stored to be cannibalized, since Russia no longer receives any spare traps from Airbus or Boeing. And in the best of cases, if the rents continue to be paid by the Russian companies, they will be paid in rubles and not in dollars, which will not correspond to the value that the lessor expected to derive from the rental.
In the end, the Russian airlines now have in their possession planes that they were only renting. Boomerang effect of sanctions that favor Russian companies to the detriment of European companies.