Foreign lessors have requested the return of more than 500 aircraft from Russian airlines. This was announced at a meeting of the Federation Council by Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Vitaly Savelyev.
According to him, it is not possible to come to an agreement with Western lessors – they refuse to sell the liners, which are now leased by our carriers. However, he himself stressed that the purchase of the aircraft would cost us a very large amount – $ 20 billion. And this is if you buy at the residual value.
The second problem is letters of credit – about 200 billion rubles, which our banks issued to foreign banks as a guarantee of lease payments. Now these letters of credit have been opened, and airlines are threatened with default on March 28, which, in turn, may lead to a cross-default of banks. “We, hopefully, will find a solution by this time,” the head of the Ministry of Transport said. He stressed that they would look for a way out together with the authorities: “We need to decide with the government what to do with the airlines that we encouraged to leave the planes,” Savelyev said.
The Minister of Transport emphasized that the return of 500 aircraft from Russia would not give anything to the lessors themselves – from his point of view, they would not be able to remarket or sell them. It is clear that this is a political decision, but it is not clear what the Russian Federation can oppose to it. From the point of view of aviation experts, the initial refusal to return the boards and their transfer to the Russian registry launched the most negative scenario for the industry.
And even if Russian superjets, on which it will now be only possible to fly abroad, do not arrest Boeing and Airbus, which remained in Russia, price increases, according to experts, cannot be avoided. According to a number of analysts, it will be double, and not only for international, but also for domestic flights. This, of course, will entail a drop in demand – at least by 20%, but given the general decline in the well-being of Russians, the numbers are likely to be even higher.