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Could Leasing Companies be Forced to Write-off 500+ aircraft

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Old 11th Mar 2022, 01:22
  #21 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by Denti
Interesting. Apparently China refuses to provide spare parts for leased aircraft in Russia, which makes it that much harder to maintain them in flying shape. Guess they have to scrap a good portion of the fleet for parts
You believe that Russia will start to break up lessors' aircraft ?

The lawyers will have a field day.
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Old 11th Mar 2022, 06:35
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Originally Posted by DaveReidUK
You believe that Russia will start to break up lessors' aircraft ?

The lawyers will have a field day.
Of course they will, see the link above. But they will have anyway, as russian airlines are not returning aircraft and documentation to the leasing companies as required by the Cape Town Convention. So they are already in breach of their contracts and that will just get worse. And yes, big law firms are already calculating their bonuses for the minimum of a decade of litigation following this mess.
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Old 11th Mar 2022, 09:37
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Could someone clarify what has to happen if you have an aircraft without its maintenance records, which has happened several times before. Ultimately would it need a 'D' check (or even a 'D' check +) to make it airworthy?
I've actually seen an advert from an organisation that has repossessed an aircraft asking for the log book. I don't know if they were successful.
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Old 11th Mar 2022, 12:31
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Originally Posted by Peter47
Could someone clarify what has to happen if you have an aircraft without its maintenance records.
The most likely outcome would be aluminium cans. Without records all life limited parts need to be assumed to have zero hours/cycles left, and the cost of re-conditioning and re-certifying all such components are probably akin to buying a new aircraft.
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Old 11th Mar 2022, 18:14
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Originally Posted by andrasz
The most likely outcome would be aluminium cans. Without records all life limited parts need to be assumed to have zero hours/cycles left, and the cost of re-conditioning and re-certifying all such components are probably akin to buying a new aircraft.
I can conform this , in a smaller scale, a few years back the office near a hangar burned in a small airfield and all the Log books and maintenance records of a few gliders and aircraft went up in flames. . . After months of litigation with the local CAA , the aircraft could not be re-registered and were ultimately scrapped.
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Old 13th Mar 2022, 05:25
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Here's a really good video from Mentour Now about leased aircraft, Russia, and repossession and consequences. It's worth a watch.
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Old 13th Mar 2022, 06:08
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Could Leasing Companies be Forced to Write-off 500+ aircraft

Delta Tech Ops did a lot of heavy maintenance for Russian airlines, including engine overhaul.
That came to a screeching halt.
It's going to be hard for them to replace that expert maintenance !

Delta doesn't fly any 787's but they overhaul the engines for airlines that do .

https://deltatechops.com/delta-techo...ngine-service/
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Old 13th Mar 2022, 10:19
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Apparently Bermuda has withdrawn the airworthiness certificates from over 700 jets operated by russian entities.

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Old 13th Mar 2022, 16:20
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Reports that they have been deregistered too. I presume they will shortly be sporting Russian registrations with airworthiness certificates and insurance arranged in record time. The legal ramifications are going to be interesting.
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Old 13th Mar 2022, 17:04
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Originally Posted by lederhosen
Reports that they have been deregistered too. I presume they will shortly be sporting Russian registrations with airworthiness certificates and insurance arranged in record time. The legal ramifications are going to be interesting.
You can’t deregister an aircraft without prior consent from the owner. You can however revoke a CofA at anytime.

And reasons being that the aircraft are registered in Bermuda for tax reasons are not true - can you imagine working with the Russian authority to remove an aircraft in the current circumstances. But of course the “journalist” who broke this story would know that…
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Old 13th Mar 2022, 17:18
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The next few days will show how the Russian authorities respond. I would be surprised if they just stop flying. As I said earlier the legal arguments are yet to be heard. By the way can you explain your comment about tax and registration in Bermuda. I did not quite follow what you were saying.
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Old 13th Mar 2022, 17:34
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The ownership in Bermuda and other offshore registrations is absolutely for tax reasons, though there may well be other ‘corporate’ considerations as well.
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Old 13th Mar 2022, 19:28
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Can China sell Russia their new narrow-bodied jet or is there enough Western technology that sales could be blocked ?
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Old 13th Mar 2022, 22:52
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Originally Posted by HKG253250
The ownership in Bermuda and other offshore registrations is absolutely for tax reasons, though there may well be other ‘corporate’ considerations as well.
But that’s the point - they are not owned in Bermuda, but in Ireland.
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Old 14th Mar 2022, 01:21
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Originally Posted by Big Pistons Forever
Can China sell Russia their new narrow-bodied jet or is there enough Western technology that sales could be blocked ?
I doubt russian operators have the money to afford any new ac r/n or anytime soon.
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Old 14th Mar 2022, 06:33
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Dannyboy39 my point was primarily about registration. The original reasons for non registration in Russia included punitive taxes on imported foreign aircraft and leasing companies' concerns about remarketing aircraft that had been operated under Russian rules as well ironically as the very issue which is now top of the list recovering their assets (see Capetown agreement).

Last edited by lederhosen; 14th Mar 2022 at 06:48.
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Old 14th Mar 2022, 11:35
  #37 (permalink)  
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Originally Posted by HKG253250
The ownership in Bermuda and other offshore registrations is absolutely for tax reasons, though there may well be other ‘corporate’ considerations as well.
It is not as Lederhosen explained, , in fact I was told certain leasing companied mandated registration in Bermuda as a precondition to a leasing contract mainly to avoid Russia bureaucratic control. Well it did not help much in the end. .
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Old 14th Mar 2022, 11:50
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In the end it is about both issues. Registration of a western build aircraft in russia required an import tax of 25% of the value of that aircraft. Which is quite a big incentive not to do it. On the other hand, lessors wanted non-russian registrations as well, so it was a win-win at that point. Now, since russia basically does not allow the return of leased aircraft there will be apparently not a registration tax anymore when and if those aircraft will be put on the russian registry. In an autocratic state laws are basically meaningless anyway, just whatever the Fuhrer wants is important, nothing else.
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Old 14th Mar 2022, 14:25
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I am always happy to learn something new. But it would be helpful to understand which bit I got wrong ATC Watcher. Denti who is usually pretty reliable has confirmed that there were taxation implications on the import of foreign aircraft. A short google search will back this up up if anybody remains unconvinced.

My second point was that leasing companies preferred foreign registrations for various reasons. One reason (which I may not have explained particularly well) is that the Russian authorities reputation for oversight of maintenance etc. was not the greatest. One of the big risks in leasing is the state of the aircraft when you get it back. I have had some personal experience of airframes that came back from Africa and South America which were in a shocking state. Fixing them was a big hit to the bottom line. The lessors also hoped that having them registered abroad would help if they needed to get them back. Again as Denti has pointed out that has not worked so well. One aircraft was reportedly flown back from Egypt against the wishes of the lessor and allegedly without insurance.

Someone has started a new thread which confirms my original point that I expected the Russians would in any case continue flying these aircraft. My personal view is that the Russians consider themselves to be in a war situation (in this case economic) and therefore anything goes.
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Old 14th Mar 2022, 16:54
  #40 (permalink)  
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lederhosen :
But it would be helpful to understand which bit I got wrong ATC Watcher.
Ooops , syntax error , typed too fast. . The comma is missing after "it is not" . I was directly replying to the HKG affirmation that it was absolutely for tax reasons , quoting you as reference... The correct sentence should have read , It is not ( absolutely for that reasons), comma, as lederhosen explained, etc..
You got nothing wrong ,, sorry for the misunderstanding, will better watch my syntax next time!
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