Russian airlines are refusing to return more than 400 planes and aircraft parts they have leased from Western companies. The Washington Post writes about it.
According to research firm Cirium, leasing companies demanded $10 billion in insurance claims. Rob Morris, head of global consulting at Cirium, claims that of the 968 aircraft in Russia's commercial fleet at the time of the invasion of Ukraine, 515 belonged to foreign leasing companies. Of these, they were able to return only about 80.
In addition to aircraft, Russia also refuses to return leased aircraft engines. In particular, the Estonian company Magnetic MRO faced such a problem. Prior to the invasion of Ukraine, Russia had leased four Boeing engines from the company, according to its chief executive, Risto Maeots. After the imposition of sanctions, Russia had a month to return them, but this never happened.
In early June, an Airbus A330 of Aeroflot was arrested in Sri Lanka due to the lack of permission to fly from the country's aviation authorities. The airport authorities said that the problem is related to a commercial dispute with a leasing company from Ireland, Celestial Aviation Trading Limited, which owns this airliner. She asked the court to ban the plane from leaving the country.
