Moscow: At the moment, 13 out of 357 aircraft of Russia’s biggest carrier, Aeroflot, have been seized abroad, mostly during maintenance or flights, because of international sanctions, the company’s CEO, Sergey Alexandrovsky ,said on Wednesday.
“Currently, 357 aircraft are registered in the Aeroflot Group, 13 foreign-made aircraft are blocked outside Russia,” Alexandrovsky said in an interview with Russian media.
Most of the aircraft were blocked during scheduled maintenance or international flights, he said.
Aeroflot’s CEO also said that 89 planes are without double registration, but the company is working on increasing their number.
“But there is no direct relationship between registration and the possibility of international flights. There are a number of other restrictions associated with international transportation. In addition to double registration, there are also ‘US blacklists.’ There are restrictions against using aircraft with more than 30% US-made components. But what is it – these 30% – no one knows for sure: in money, in units, in engines?” Alexandrovsky said.
Moreover, there is a restriction on international flights related to servicing planes, including refueling and ground handling, he added.
Russian aviation has faced massive sanctions since the beginning of Russian special military operation in Ukraine on February 24. The wave of EU sanctions banned sales of aircraft and their parts to Russian carriers and obligated European leasing companies to retrieve all leased planes from Russia. Some countries have closed their airspace to Russian flights and threatened to detain the planes registered and leased abroad. In late March, Russian Transport Minister Vitaly Saveliev said that Western lessors requested that Russia return over 500 planes.
