The European Commission has asked the Irish government to respond with more information after Aeroflot (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo) claimed it had bought ten Boeing widebodies from an Irish company, the Business Post, an Irish weekly, reported.
The European Union imposed strict sanctions banning the sale of aircraft to Russian firms shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine 11 months ago. But in late December, the Russian state-controlled flag carrier claimed it had bought the ten B777-300(ER)s from “an Irish company”, which it did not name, having previously leased them, it said, for up to nine years.
That company turned out to be a local lessor and subsidiary of VEB-Leasing, which is in turn owned by Russian state-owned development bank VEB, sources told Reuters last week. VEB-Leasing had 24 Irish subsidiaries, according to its 2019 financial results.
The Business Post reported this week that its own sources told it that the European Commission had contacted the Irish government to ask for further details about the deal. Ireland’s Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is now investigating the alleged sale, assisted by the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Central Bank of Ireland. All three entities are designated national authorities for enforcing EU sanctions.
“The department is working to verify the veracity of the reports and to establish the full facts of the situation,” a spokesman for the Department of Enterprise told the newspaper.
It is technically possible, the representative said, to get an exemption from EU sanctions if an aircraft is being kept in Russia against the will of a non-Russian owner - as several hundred are - and if it is sold for the full market price. But this exemption can be granted in Ireland only by the Department of Enterprise, and it has so far not received such an application.
Aeroflot claimed it had been leasing the ten aircraft from 2013 and 2014 under a finance lease deal, meaning the lessee receives ownership rights after paying the entire amount. It added that it would continue to work on further buyouts in an effort to keep operating its fleet of foreign-made aircraft.
Aeroflot did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ch-aviation.
Reuters cited Flightradar24 ADS-B data and the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority as showing that Aeroflot had been operating twenty-two B777s in March 2022, ten of which it owned and ten it leased from Russian and Chinese lessors.
The ch-aviation fleets module also shows it currently operates 22 of the type, ten owned and at leased nine leased (one from Aurum Leasing, three from Bocomm Leasing, five from GTLK - State Transport Leasing). An additional four dry-leased B777-300(ER)s are operated by Aeroflot subsidiary Rossiya (FV, St. Petersburg) (four from AerCap and one from Carlyle Aviation Partners).
