Russia is apparently planning to block their airlines from returning (stealing?) Western airliners leased to their airlines.
This will be a major hit to aircraft leasing companies.
From Reuters:
“Russia published a draft law on Thursday that could prevent its airlines returning leased aircraft, raising the stakes in a showdown with Western finance over $10 billion of jets.”
Will Russia nationalize the leased airliners that Russian airlines operate? A legal quagmire is developing for western aircraft leasing companies.
From Reuters:
Aeroflot Russian Airlines is afraid its leased aircraft will be seized overseas.
The flag carrier of Russia has announced it will halt all international flights except to Belarus starting on March 8.
Read more from the AP:
The Russian ruble has nose dived in value. It is basically worthless against the U.S. dollar. The value of the ruble has plummeted to less than 1 U.S. cent.
More from The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/03/03/russia-ruble-putin-sanctions/
No reservations … No airline.
Sabre Corporation, a leading software and technology company in the travel industry, today announced that it has terminated its distribution agreement with Aeroflot, the largest government-majority owned carrier in Russia. Sabre is taking immediate steps to remove Aeroflot flight content from its global distribution system (GDS), a marketplace used by travel agencies, travel websites and corporations around the world to shop, book and service flight reservations.
โSabre has been monitoring the evolving situation in Ukraine with increasing concern. From the beginning, our primary focus has been the safety of our team members in the impacted region, as well as doing our part to support the much-needed relief efforts,โ said Sean Menke, CEO of Sabre. โWe are taking a stand against this military conflict. We are complying, and will continue to comply, with sanctions imposed against Russia. In addition, today we announced that Sabre has terminated its distribution agreement with Aeroflot, removing its content from our GDS.โ
The Company will continue to monitor the ongoing situation and will evaluate whether additional actions would be appropriate, taking into account legal considerations and any counter measures that could be implemented in response.
To help support humanitarian programs in the region, Sabre, which has approximately 1,500 team members in Poland, has donated $1 million to the Polish Red Cross, a 100-year charity that does exemplary work in conflict zones and for supporting displaced people. The funds donated by Sabre will be used by the Polish Red Cross to purchase, among other materials, much-needed food, hygiene products and sleeping bags, and will support the provision of medical assistance to those seeking shelter in Poland.
Airspace bans against Russian airlines are working.
However some Russian tourists may have trouble getting home. Some may be stranded for a while. Certainly this pales to what Ukrainian citizens are facing. Their lives and homes are at stake due to Russian aggression against Ukraine. Many have been forced to flee the country.
According to TASS, Russian tour operators calculate the number of Russian tourists outside of Russia to be currently over 150,000, with some 27,000 in countries directly affected by air travel bans.
In addition, Russian airlines may be forced to return their leased aircraft.
Boeing said it was suspending aircraft parts, maintenance and technical support for Russian airlines as the effect of sanctions in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ripple across the global aviation industry according to Reuters.
Airbus followed and did the same.
American Airlines has suspended its interline agreements with Aeroflot Russian Airlines and S7 Airlines.
Aeroflot Russian Airlines announced today it is suspending all flights to the United States, Mexico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic due to Canadian airspace restrictions.
Aeroflot is going to have a lot of aircraft on the ground.
Announcement on social media:
Due to the closure of Canadian airspace, Aeroflot’s transatlantic flights from February 28 to March 2, 2022 to and from Moscow to the following destinations have been cancelled:
– Mexico (Cancun โ SU158/159);
– USA (Los Angeles โ SU108/109; Miami โ SU110/111; New York โ SU102/103 and SU124/125; Washington โ SU104/105);
– Cuba (Havana โ SU150/151; Varadero โ SU154/155);
– Dominican Republic (Punta Cana โ SU156/157).
You must be logged in to post a comment.