Russia has asked Vietnam to lease it passenger aircraft together with crews and maintenance, as the fleet of planes seized from Western lessors in 2022 is deteriorating and almost a fifth of the aircraft operated by Russia’s largest airlines are not flying.
This was reported by Euronews.
Transport Minister Andrei Nikitin said that Moscow had offered Vietnamese airlines the option of transferring aircraft to Russian carriers under a “wet lease” — an arrangement that includes the aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance. Hanoi is reportedly considering the proposal.
Vietnam’s main airline operates only Airbus and Boeing aircraft, meaning any transfer to Russia would involve Western-made jets. This creates the same risk of secondary sanctions that led Ethiopia to reject a similar proposal, as companies could face US penalties for facilitating the operation of sanctioned aircraft types by a Russian carrier.
Moscow’s approaches to other countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East have so far produced no results.
Russia’s Fleet Is Deteriorating
Russia’s request to Vietnam shows how far its fleet of passenger aircraft has declined, with planes seized and stripped for parts. It is based on a legally disputed re-registration of aircraft and components that do not meet international airworthiness standards.
After sanctions were imposed following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow passed a law that allowed airlines to re-register domestically more than 400 Western aircraft that were on foreign lease, instead of returning them to their owners.
Under international aviation law, dual registration of the same aircraft is prohibited, meaning Russia’s re-registration actions are illegal.
At the same time, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has no enforcement mechanisms that could compel the return of these aircraft.
Lessors have filed insurance claims totalling around $8 billion to recover losses, and many of these cases are still ongoing.
Before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, about 850 of the 900 commercial aircraft in Russia’s fleet were Boeing or Airbus aircraft (from the US and Europe), with around 85% of them leased from foreign companies.
Russian Airlines Strip Seized Western Aircraft for Parts
As supplies of Western spare parts and the provision of maintenance services are now subject to sanctions, airlines have begun stripping seized aircraft for parts, further complicating the legal situation.
Under international airworthiness standards, every component must have a certified, traceable maintenance history. Parts removed from aircraft that have fallen outside Western-certified maintenance chains cannot legally be used on aircraft operated on international routes.
Russia’s aviation regulator, Rosaviatsiya, issues its own certificates for such parts, but they are not recognised by EU or US aviation authorities.
According to Russian industry statistics, of the 673 aircraft operated by Russia’s 11 largest airlines, 130 (almost a fifth) are not in use. By comparison, the normal level of downtime is about 10%.
The situation is even worse at airlines outside the Aeroflot group: 93 of their 322 aircraft are grounded — almost a third of the fleet.