Aircraft chartered from Russia loses registration

Russia plans to confiscate aircraft chartered abroad by nationalizing them. Bermuda responds and deregisters these aircraft.

With international economic sanctions, Russia is facing increasing numbers of leasing companies taking back its planes. In order to avoid this, they are now planning to nationalize the planes so that they can be kept. The Isle of Man has already done it, and now Bermuda is following suit. The British Overseas Province has canceled the registration of 740 aircraft in Russia, declaring them unfit for flight, among other things Aero Telegraph mentioned.

Nationalization of devices that do not fly?

International air traffic of Russian airlines such as Aeroflot has been completely halted. In addition, due to the current sanctions, lease contracts for about 750 aircraft based in Russia will expire by March 28. However, confiscating these aircraft has already proven very difficult. A new law passed by the Russian government should allow airlines to keep planes for now. For this purpose, these aircraft must be nationalized. Only in individual cases does a Russian government commission decide whether or not the aircraft in question should be returned to the lessor. Lessors, who registered their planes mostly in Bermuda, are now reacting to this.

The territory of the British island in the North Atlantic has canceled the registration of aircraft registered there, declaring them unfit for flight. Aircraft in Russia with VP and VQ registrations are currently losing airworthiness certificates, Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority announced. In doing so, Bermuda follows the guidelines and sanctions imposed by the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man, which previously deregistered chartered aircraft. According to its own information, about 900 chartered aircraft were registered in Bermuda. 740 of these aircraft are currently operated by Russian Airlines. Another 150 of these planes belong to Aeroflot alone.

If these sanctions are extended for another three months, the total impact could be around $5 million. If these sanctions last for 12 months, the impact is expected to be around $25 million.

Lawrence Scott, Bermuda Secretary of Transportation to the Royal Gazette

This also relates to the fact that the safety of the chartered aircraft can no longer be maintained. In addition, aircraft can no longer be maintained to specifications in the short to medium term. Airbus and Boeing are completely withdrawing from Russia and have already terminated the corresponding contracts. China also refuses to supply spare parts. The move by the Bermuda government could also help the Russian government. Rosaviatsiya’s aviation authority announced last year that it would soon no longer allow foreign registered aircraft. The first aircraft was successfully rewritten at the end of last year. Now this process can be speeded up. The fact that the aircraft was previously registered in Bermuda simply had tax advantages. The registration of foreign aircraft in Russia led to a rise in import duties.

Conclusion regarding loss of consent

Western sanctions targeting aviation are hurting Russia badly. You can see that in Russia’s current approach. Every effort is made to circumvent the demands of rental companies and ban spare parts. Now it seems that the decision has already been taken to nationalize the machines and their spare parts. Bermuda wants to prevent this and deregister all aircraft registered there. The aircraft was declared unfit to fly. Whether that could even help the Russian government remains open.

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