Russian law creates new hurdle for foreign plane lessors - Yahoo News
(Reuters) - Russia on Monday passed a law allowing the country's airlines to place airplanes leased from foreign companies on the country's aircraft register - a manoeuvre likely to stoke Western fears of a mass default involving hundreds of jetliners.
The bill, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, has rattled global leasing firms days before a March 28 deadline to repossess aircraft worth $10 billion as a result of Western sanctions imposed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Russian airlines have almost 780 leased jets, with 515 leased from abroad.
The new law, part of Russia's measures to combat the sanctions, says it aims "to ensure the uninterrupted functioning of activities in the field of civil aviation".
It comes after Bermuda and Ireland, where virtually all foreign-leased jets operating in Russia are registered, said they were suspending airworthiness certificates on the jets because they could no longer be sure they were safe.
Re-registering jets in Russia would aim to keep them flying domestically by granting access to new safety approvals.
But adding Russia as a second host country could put Moscow at odds with international rules barring the registration of civil planes in more than one country at a time.
Unless Western lessors agree to Russian requests to release their jets from foreign registries - widely seen as unlikely while they struggle as it is to regain control of assets - the new policy also paves the way for a major contractual debate.
"It is illegal to register an aircraft without proof of deregistration from the previous registry as well as the agreement of the owner. This would be a default under leasing contracts," said aviation adviser Bertrand Grabowski.
AIRLINE DILEMMA
Technically, the new law does not instruct airlines to re-register their planes without the permission of owners led by Dublin-based AerCap, the world's largest air lessor.
But experts said it puts the onus on the airline to apply for new registration to keep flying inside Russia - at the risk of poisoning relations with powerful lessors once the crisis is over - or else do nothing and see their fleets grounded.
source: https://news.yahoo.com/putin-signs-law-registering-leased-112547088.html
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