easyJet (London Luton) has decided to terminate lease contracts with Russia's GTLK - State Transport Leasing for six A319-100s after the lessor was placed under European Union sanctions, Bloomberg has reported.

The carrier has since confirmed it has indeed terminated the leases.

The ch-aviation fleets ownership module shows that the six aircraft - G-EZFX (msn 4385), G-EZFY (msn 4418), G-EZFZ (msn 4425), G-EZGA (msn 4427), G-EZGB (msn 4437), and G-EZGC (msn 4444) - were retired from revenue service in March 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a period of storage in the UK, they were ferried to each of Madrid Barajas and Larnaca last month, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows.

The news agency also confirmed that SmartLynx Airlines (6Y, Riga) has stopped paying lease dues for the four A321-200s it dry-leases from GTLK, while Bluebird Nordic (Reykjavik Keflavik) did the same with regards to its three B777-300(ER)s owned by the Russian lessor. Both carriers are owned by the Avia Solutions Group.

While initially left out of the sanctions imposed for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, GTLK was eventually added to the European list in the second half of April.