President Vladimir Putin has signed a law, published on the official Russian portal on Monday, allowing Russian airlines to register planes they rent abroad in Russia so that they can fly them in the country.
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This measure will allow companies to continue to use these devices for domestic flights despite Western sanctions. They would nevertheless be seized if they flew abroad.
This law is part of the measures adopted in response to the unprecedented punitive sanctions adopted by many countries against Russia after it sent its troops to Ukraine.
The airspace of all NATO and EU members has been closed to Russian aircraft, effectively grounding Aeroflot to those destinations. Airlines such as the Kazakh Air Astana or the Turkish Pegasus Airlines have announced that they will suspend their flights to Russia due to the uncertainty created by the sanctions.
The aeronautical industry is also more widely concerned: ban on exports of aircraft, spare parts or equipment, cessation of maintenance of aircraft registered in Russia by Airbus and Boeing, prohibited access to insurance and reinsurance services in London.
On Saturday, Bermuda Civil Aviation, where several hundred planes from Russian companies are registered, announced that they would break their certification from Sunday, paving the way for flight bans.
To this, the law published on Monday responds with the certification in Russia of these planes.
According to the Russian Ministry of Transport, as of March 11 Russian airlines operated 1,367 planes, of which more than half (739) are registered abroad.