Aircraft Leasing companies are waiting for the opportunities to settle their dues with Russian carriers , and such was an opportunity when Celestial Aviation tracked this Aeroflot Airbus A330-343 aircraft (RA-73702) to Colombo (CMB) - SriLanka and filed a case in the Island country to restrain it there.
Subject Aircraft (MSN :1301) was delivered to Aeroflot in April 2012 as new , which the Russian carrier has registered under the Bermuda Aircraft Registry as VQ-BMY for certain tax benefits at that time.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, due to sactions , the same aircraft (MSN :1301) was re-registered as RA-73702 under the Russian Aircraft Registry following the instructions of Russian Government to keep the the leased aircraft in the country as state property.
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Now , the Colombo Commercial High Court has issued an enjoining order on this aircraft , that has prevented the Russian Aeroflot flight from leaving Colombo , Sri Lanka.
After hearing a complaint filed by Celestial Aviation Trading Limited in Ireland , Colombo Commercial High Court Judge has issued the injunction on the Russian carrier -Aeroflot , which will remain in effect untill the 16th , pending further developments.
Among other lessors, Ireland based AerCap has 152 aircraft worth about $2.5 billion stuck across Russia and Ukraine, while 21 aircraft owned by Air Lease Corporation still remains in Russia.
In this new case , the plaintiff states that it has a settlement case with the respondent Russian Airline. Therefore, the plaintiff has filed a complaint seeking an injunction restraining the aircraft belonging to the respondent airline from leaving Sri Lanka.
Following the consideration of the complaint, the Colombo Commercial High Court Judge has issued the enjoining order.
Three months back , Switzerland had broken it's neutral status from the World War II to sanction Russia and ban it's airspace for russian aircraft , due to which an Aeroflot Airbus A321-211 (Regd. VP-BOE) got stuck at Geneva (GVA).
The discussed Russian Aeroflot flight SU-288 had arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport (IATA: CMB; ICAO: VCBI) from Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) Moscow , Russia at 10.10 on 1st June. The flight was scheduled to depart for Moscow again at 12.50PM after a transit.
But, due to the latest development to detain the aircraft , more than 200 passengers, who had arrived at the Katunayake Airport to depart on the flight, had been directed to a hotel near the airport.
These developments and similar others took a start after EU banned the supply of civil aircraft and spare parts to Russia , and asked lessors to terminate contracts with Russian airlines by the end of March.
Additionally , Aircraft maintenance and insurance services were also banned, while the European Union, the United States , Canada and multiple other countries banned the Russian aircraft to their Airspace.
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