Ten Russian-owned or Russian-Fed-controlled aircraft remain at German airfields, group publications Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) reported on Sunday, August 14, citing Germany’s Federal Transport Ministry. These planes cannot leave the country due to sanctions: Germany closed its skies to Russian aviation on February 27, three days after Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Russia began.
Basically, we are talking about small cars: business jets or aircraft used for charter flights. There are three An-124s in Leipzig, a Bombardier BD-100-1A10 Challenger 300 and a Boeing 737 in Cologne, a Boeing 747 in Frankfurt-Hahn, a Cessna 750 Citation X, two Embraer ERJ-135BJ Legacy 600 and a Bombardier in Baden -Baden BD-700-1A10 Global Express XRS. In Munich there is an Airbus A320 plane, once leased by a Russian airline – the decision on its future destination must be made by the owner.
“As the cars are subject to a take-off and flight ban due to the EU sanctions regime, they cannot be used by the owner and cannot be taken to another location,” explained the German Transport Ministry. At the same time, the agency clarified that Russian aircraft can only receive basic services – for example, to protect against unauthorized access to them. Any other maintenance is prohibited, as is the supply of spare parts.
Russian airlines refuse to return more than 400 aircraft
On July 13, the American newspaper The Washington Post wrote that Russian airlines still have not returned more than 400 passenger aircraft leased abroad. Of the 515 ships that were leased at the time of the imposition of sanctions against Russia for the war in Ukraine, the owners managed to recover only about 80. The amount of claims reached US$ 10 billion.
Meanwhile, Russian airlines have already started dismantling the aircraft to obtain spare parts they cannot buy due to Western sanctions. This was reported on August 8 by Reuters, citing its industry sources. According to them, at least one Sukhoi Superjet 100 and one Airbus A350 have already been victims of “aviation cannibalism”. Some equipment was also removed from Aeroflot’s Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 aircraft.
Source: DW
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