New Russian law makes it harder for leased aircraft to be returned.

Aircraft leasing firms will find it much harder to repossess aeroplanes in Russia after authorities implemented a new law that allows foreign jets to be registered in Russia.

The main Russian carriers have over 500 leased aircraft with a value of £7.7 billion in the country and those foreign leasing firms only have until 28th March to retrieve aircraft before sanctions are applied.

In the last few days, aviation authorities in both Bermuda and Ireland advised they were suspending the airworthiness certificates of all aircraft in Russia that are on their registrations, which is the bulk of foreign leased aircraft.

The new regulations, signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, would allow those aircraft to be registered in Russia and get their safety certification which allows those planes to keep flying, albeit within Russian airspace. 

SMBC Aviation Capital leases 35 aircraft to Aeroflot, S7 Airlines, Nordstar Airlines, Ural Airlines and Nordwind Airlines and has now complied with sanctions and was terminating those leases.

 AerCap, the leasing giant based in Dublin has a large contingent of its owned fleet currently placed with Russian airlines and is unsure when and if it will get those 152 planes back. BOC Aviation also has a number of aircraft with Russian airlines, however, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bank of China, it is unlikely to repossess those aircraft at this stage. 

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