Private Russian airlines open to returning leased aircraft

Some of Russia’s private airlines appear open to returning their Western-owned aircraft to lessors despite a new law that allows them to seize the planes. Russia’s state airlines, including the Aeroflot group’s eponymous carrier, Pobeda, and Rosiya, appear to be hanging on to their leased aircraft. Those three airlines hold more than 50 Western-owned planes, and have suspended all international flights to avoid potential aircraft seizure. But lessors are finding the country’s private carriers, including Nordwind and S7, more amenable to working with them in order to maintain access to European and U.S. aircraft after the war ends. Privately owned Russian airlines “very much see the endgame beyond this current crisis or believe that there is life after this crisis, and they are doing everything possible knowing that they need our aircraft and other Western supplied aircraft on the leasing side,” Air Lease Corp. CEO John Plueger said Wednesday. “So they’re doing I think an excellent job of trying to manage this balance to try and work with us as cooperatively as possible.” ALC has 14 aircraft leased to S7, 11 to Nordwind, four at Ifly, and a handful at other private carriers, according to IBA data via J.P. Morgan. None of its 32 aircraft in Russia are flown by Aeroflot or its affiliates. That’s good news for lessors that feared the industry may have to write off as much as $10b in aircraft assets. Cirium data show that 79 Western-owned aircraft have been recovered by lessors to date, leaving some 428 aircraft in either Russia or Belarus. Russian airlines leased 515 aircraft from foreign lessors on February 24 when Russia invaded Ukraine.<br/>