LONDON – An Aeroflot Airbus A321 is currently stuck and in storage in Geneva following the widescale airspace closure attributed to the Ukraine-Russia invasion.
VP-BOE is the aircraft in question, an eight-year-old Airbus A321-200 that was delivered to the carrier in September 2013 via a hidden lessor, according to Planespotters.net.
According to data from RadarBox.com, the last flight the frame did was yesterday when it operated SU2384 from Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport.
With the aircraft on lease, it is unclear whether the company will seize the aircraft from the Russian carrier or not as this hasn’t been updated on the Planespotters.net side.
Such a theme does look to be developing in the theme of repossession.
According to a report from Reuters, AerCap Holdings said today that it would cease leasing activity with Russian carriers, with BOC Aviation mentioning that most of its leases in Russia would now have to be terminated by March 28.
This also means that more than half of all aircraft in Russia will have to be returned to lessors due to the aircraft not being able to be insured in the region.
VP-BOE will find it very difficult to head back to Russia due to a significant airspace closure instigated by EUROCONTROL and European governments.
In the last couple of days, for example, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia became the last set of countries to ban Russian aircraft from its airspace following the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Such actions taken by EUROCONTROL and European governments represent the biggest civil aviation blockade in modern times.
This is a developing story.
