Russian Airlines and Boeing/Airbus

[Mike Flynn]

I am currently staying at NaiYong Beach near Phuket airport in Thailand and can’t help noticing Aeroflot and other Russian charters flying Airbus and Boeing aircraft here several times a day.

I thought there was an embargo on the use of these aircraft and they were no longer supported by the manufacturer.

[Asturias56]

IIRC the Russians rushed through a law giving their State Authorities rights over the certification etc

[andrasz]

There were a few A/Bs that were owned by Russian airlines (SU in particular), not leased and on a foreign register. The aircraft legally owned by Russian airlines can fly to any country which has no carpet ban on Russian regstered aircraft. However should a re-registered aircraft do the same, they would likely be impounded in most places.

[Nil by mouth]

Just out of interest, are these flights allowed certified maintenance and to "pick up" spare parts in these countries where they are still allowed to operate to?

[Less Hair]

Databases and software must be totally out of date. How do these aircraft work with non working databases? Are they hacked somehow?

[krismiler]

Data bases can be provided by friendly countries, the Iranians have relied on this for years. Obviously the copy is unlicensed and hopefully gets a very careful checking. Russian computer hackers are quite skilled and encryption would be at commercial level rather than top grade military.

Any aviation authority in a country that Russian Airbus or Boeing aircraft operate to should be taking a close interest in the airworthiness of these aircraft.

Thai Airways operate the same types and most of their fleet is grounded at the moment and parked in lines at BKK, with quite a few unlikely ever to fly again. While this is Thailand, I wouldn’t for a minute suggest that these aircraft or the company’s spares holding could be used to keep Russian aircraft flying. Sanctions would be properly enforced.

[ATC Watcher]

Thai Airways operate the same types and most of their fleet is grounded at the moment and parked in lines at BKK, with quite a few unlikely ever to fly again. While this is Thailand, I wouldn’t for a minute suggest that these aircraft or the company’s spares holding could be used to keep Russian aircraft flying. Sanctions would be properly enforced.
Thailand is not party to the sanctions against Russia. and to "help " with spares would not be illegal , in the same way that Malysia" helped" Iran airlines in the past .
Russia can also purchase aircraft to be used as spares as Iran did ( and still do afaik) There are enough of them available currently.

One thing Russian authorities could face in the near future though is losing ICAO membership and all the protections that goes with it. Then it will be adifferent ball game flying those aircraft commercially and internationally.

[Less Hair]

Who insures them?

[ATC Watcher]

Who insures them?
i would say the State , just like they/we do with State aircraft carrying civil pax . But it is a guess .

[Mike Flynn]

Laos has just banned Russian aircraft from overflying en route Thailand.

14.12.2022 - 22:11 UTCAeroflot (https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/airline/SU) (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo (https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/airports/3689)) has started operating some of its charter flights from Far Eastern cities in Russia to Thailand with refuelling stops after Laos closed its airspace to Russian airlines.

The airline confirmed to local media that it was in contact with the Laotian authorities, hoping to secure clearance to fly via the country's airspace. However, as long as the talks are not concluded, it must bypass Laos for flights from Vladivostok (https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/airports/3794), Krasnoyarsk Yemelyanovo (https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/airports/3669), and Novosibirsk (https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/airports/3710) to Thailand, one of the most popular international leisure destinations still open to Russian tourists. While for flights operated with A330-300 (https://www.ch-aviation.com/aircraft-data/333)s the development results only in an extension of the flight duration, services flown with B737-800 (https://www.ch-aviation.com/aircraft-data/738)s are forced to operate with a refuelling stop at Irkutsk Int'l (https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/airports/3647), adding some two to three hours to the journey time.

Other Russian airlines flying to Thailand from the Far East, such as Azur Air (https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/airline/AZK) and Ikar (Russian Federation) (https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/airline/IKL), deploy long-range aircraft (B757-200 (https://www.ch-aviation.com/aircraft-data/752)s or B777-200 (https://www.ch-aviation.com/aircraft-data/772)s) capable of operating the extended route via Myanmar with no refuelling stops. The need to bypass Laos is not a factor for flights departing from central and western parts of Russia.

Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows that Russian airlines were flying through Laotian airspace until the end of November. It is not clear what made the South-Eastern Asian country change its decision regarding overflights. Laos, a single-party communist state, has very close political ties to China.

Simultaneously, the Aviatorshina Telegram channel reported that at least two airlines - iFly Airlines (https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/airline/IFY) and Nordwind Airlines (https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/airline/NWI) - were banned from operating over Jordan, an important transit country for flights to Egypt. The latter was forced to cancel its services to Hurghada (https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/airports/1586) and Sharm el Sheikh (https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/airports/1592), as it became practically impossible for them to serve these routes with narrowbody aircraft, while the former will deploy its widebody A330-300 (https://www.ch-aviation.com/aircraft-data/333)s on a circuitous route bypassing Saudi Arabia from the south. Türkiye has previously banned (https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/121421-trkiye-bans-dual-registered-russian-aircraft) flights (including overflights) of Russian double-registered aircraft, while Saudi Arabia bans all Russian flights and Syrian airspace is still deemed unsafe for commercial operators. Other carriers, including Aeroflot, Red Wings Airlines (https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/airline/RED), Azur Air, and Azimuth (https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/airline/AZ1), use aircraft legally registered only in Russia and are thus able to fly to Egypt via Türkiye.

How come Thailand is not sanctioned for refuelling etc.


https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/122438-laos-jordan-close-airspace-to-russian-airlines

[Denti]

Thailand is not party to the sanctions against Russia. and to "help " with spares would not be illegal , in the same way that Malysia" helped" Iran airlines in the past .

While it is true that Thailand is not party to sanctions, neither the USA nor the EU care about that and have secondary sanctions for exactly that case. Anyone helping Russia to wiggle out of its sanctions can be hit with a similar level of sanctions. Which is why China doesn’t help Russia for example.

[MarkerInbound]

Databases and software must be totally out of date. How do these aircraft work with non working databases? Are they hacked somehow?

The system will work fine with an out of date database. My job has a procedure for out of date database if maintenance hadn’t loaded the next version of the database. We double check the location of each waypoint. After all, how many things change every 28 days? That being said, after 10 months there will be more and more new waypoints that the crew will have to manually create.

[Big Pistons Forever]

That being said, after 10 months there will be more and more new waypoints that the crew will have to manually create.

What could possibly go wrong :rolleyes:

[krismiler]

Any country found to be helping Russia circumvent sanctions would be jumped on hard. A blind eye might be turned if an aircraft was AOG and needed a new fuel pump which could be supplied from an airline’s existing spares holding, but ordering all of Aeroflot’s parts requirements on their behalf and shipping them on wouldn’t be acceptable.

There was a problem a few years ago with a Norwegian Air B737 MAX which made an emergency landing in Iran and required parts which couldn’t be sent due to sanctions, it spent 10 weeks on the ground waiting for a new engine.

A subscription to JEPPESSEN paper charts could easily be purchased in another country and forwarded to Moscow where it could be reproduced without any identification and distributed. Having to enter new waypoints and create routes manually would be quite tedious and might involve a navigator being carried for that purpose.