15:42 March 13, 2022, updated 09:46 March 14, 2022
The Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority has suspended the airworthiness certificates of Russian aircraft. Aircraft that have been on the territory of other countries since March 13 without such documents may be denied return to Russia, the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) explained. According to the consulting agency IBA, 745 Russian aircraft out of regarding 1.4 thousand are registered in Bermuda.“.
The aviation authorities of Bermuda explained their decision by the sanctions once morest Russia, which limit the ability to oversee the safety of Russian aircraft. Therefore, the regulator cannot “certify with certainty that these aircraft are airworthy.” “For any aircraft in the air at 23:59 UTC on March 12, 2022, the temporary suspension will take effect immediately upon landing,” the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.
The Ministry of Transport previously reported that 1367 aircraft are operated in Russia, 739 of them are registered in foreign registries. According to ATOR, Bermuda’s decision will affect hundreds of aircraft. The association notes that it is difficult to establish the exact number, since since the beginning of the imposition of sanctions, Russia has transferred aircraft to its registry.
The plan proposed by the Ministry of Transport for extending the airworthiness certificates of foreign aircraft and their self-service in the Russian Federation previously drew criticism from market participants, Kommersant learned. The lack of software updates and developer supervision, players say, can seriously affect flight safety, according to ““.
Updated today at 09:46
The decision of the aviation authorities of Bermuda to suspend the airworthiness certificates of aircraft of Russian airlines did not lead to the cessation of flights. They continued despite the fact that the Air Code of the Russian Federation, among other things, prohibits carrying them out without an airworthiness certificate, and not all airlines managed to re-register aircraft in the Russian register. So far, only the charter Royal Flight and aircraft of the Volga Dnepr group have suspended flights. The An-124 belonging to her was arrested in Canada, which delivered tests for covid to the country. The rest of the companies continue flying pending official permission from the authorities on March 14. Some even managed to negotiate with foreign lessors regarding flights to other countries.
On March 13, Russian airlines took to the skies regarding a hundred Bermuda-registered aircraft with a suspended airworthiness certificate every hour on March 13, according to data from the Flightradar24 portal. Airbus and Boeing with Bermuda register codes (VQ and VP) of all five major carriers (Aeroflot Group, S7, Ural Airlines and Utair), as well as other companies from the top 10 and less large, were spotted on the radar.
In total, according to various estimates by the Ministry of Transport, the Federal Air Transport Agency and analysts, there are 730-770 Bermuda-registered aircraft in the Russian Federation out of a total fleet of more than 980 aircraft. On March 12, the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority (BCAA) suspended their certificates of airworthiness (CAC). According to the Air Code of the Russian Federation, the operation of aircraft without SLG is prohibited. The BCAA release noted that sanctions once morest the Russian Federation limited the ability to oversee the safety of Russian aircraft, and the regulator cannot “confidently assert that these aircraft are airworthy.”
Thus, all flights of aircraft in the Bermuda registry from 3:00 Moscow time on March 13 are actually illegal, one of the leaders of the carriers agrees.
According to him, on March 14, a meeting is to be held in the Federal Air Transport Agency, following which the airlines expect to receive official permission to continue flights. “This should be a government decree, not telegrams, and even more so not verbal orders, on the basis of which we are now flying,” the source of Kommersant added. A source in another airline specified that the carrier continues to fly abroad under an agreement with the Irish lessor: “We were promised not to touch the aircraft until March 28” (on this day, according to sanctions, lessors must terminate contracts with Russian airlines). The Federal Air Transport Agency has banned flights outside the country on aircraft without Russian registration. On March 4, some airlines received a telegram recommending the Federal Air Transport Agency to urgently apply for re-registration in the state register of all foreign aircraft. Later, the Ministry of Transport notified the carriers in writing that the telegrams of the subordinate agency “are not of the nature of regulatory legal acts.” “We fly on parole,” summed up on March 13 one of Kommersant’s interlocutors in the aviation industry.
On March 10, the head of the Airworthiness Maintenance Department of the Armed Forces of the Federal Air Transport Agency, Valery Kudinov, said on the sidelines of the MRO aircraft maintenance forum that since February 24 (the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine), regarding 180 aircraft have already been transferred to the state register, including 80 Aeroflot aircraft and 27 ” Victory”. On the same day, the Federal Air Transport Agency denied the words of its employee, without specifying the correct figures.
At the same time, according to Kommersant’s source in the Ministry of Transport, Aeroflot has not yet transferred the planes, but has only “reserved places in the Russian register and paid for the numbers.”
Nord Wind and Pegas Fly are in the process of re-registering their aircraft in the Russian registry, Anna Podgornaya, CEO of Pegas Touristik and member of the Board of Directors of Pegas Fly, told Kommersant. Aircraft of these companies continued flights on March 13. Ms. Podgornaya did not specify the exact number of boards that the company has already transferred and plans to re-register. She also denied reports that the airlines are preparing to “overtake the fleet” to Turkey and return the aircraft to lessors. “We have more than 40 aircraft, and we have not overtaken anything and are not going to. There are a few arrested ships, but we continue to work. We have one of the most extensive flight programs in Russia, and we do not intend to abandon it, it is important for us to preserve as much as possible own planes,” Anna Podgornaya emphasized, without specifying how many planes are planned to remain in the fleet of these companies following March 28. Publications regarding the intention to re-register their aircraft in Turkish jurisdiction, Ms. Podgornaya denied, calling them speculation. “In the Russian registry, our fleet will have no problems,” she added. According to the top manager, the carriers managed to completely take out their tourists as part of humanitarian flights: regarding 10 thousand people in total.
The only passenger airline that stopped flights by March 13 was the charter carrier Royal Flight, which operates flights from the tour operator Coral Travel. According to Flightradar, of the airline’s 13 Boeings, one is already at Castellón Airport in Spain. According to Kommersant’s interlocutors in the market, Royal Flight returned them at the request of the Irish lessor AerCap.
Also, judging by Flightradar, aircraft of the Volga-Dnepr group have suspended flights: the last Boeing flights of the AirBridgeCargo carrier, which is part of the group, were performed on March 10‑12.
The company worked with the three largest lessors whose aircraft were registered in Bermuda: Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE, UAE), BOC (a Bank of China structure) and BCC (Boeing’s leasing company). A Kommersant source in the group confirmed the temporary suspension of flights. At the same time, he added that on March 12, an An-124 transport owned by Volga-Dnepr was arrested at the Canadian airport. The aircraft delivered COVID-19 testing kits ordered by the Government of Canada. “It was a somewhat unexpected and rude decision (to arrest), our lawyers are working on the situation,” the source added. The arrest was not initiated by any of the lessors or insurers who cooperated with the group, the interlocutor specified: “Everything was explained by sanctions bans on interaction with Russian carriers.” Now the company is solving issues related to the return of the An-124 crew (more than 10 people) to the Russian Federation. There is no decision yet on how the group’s fleet intends to continue flying. Answering the question of whether concentration on domestic Russian routes is possible, the source stated: “There is no market.” He added that for the further continuation of cargo transportation, the players will need help, including from the state.
In conditions when one of the critical industries of the Russian Federation is on the verge of a shutdown, “neglect of the rules in force in a past life is becoming a new normal,” says Oleg Panteleev, executive director of AviaPort. Waiver of the current rules, he emphasizes, can only be considered as an emergency and “very short-term measure.” The Russian aviation authorities, having completed the transfer of the fleet to the domestic register, must conduct a “not formal, but a full-fledged” technical audit of each aircraft. “And only on the basis of this audit to issue certificates of airworthiness,” he emphasizes. In this situation, it is important to maintain the trust not only of aviation specialists, for whom professional ethics and flight safety will remain important in any situation, but, first of all, of passengers. The expert also notes the influence of the political situation on the decisions of Western aviation authorities. “Starting from last year, using the example of Belarus, it became obvious with what ease and speed the West is curtailing the legal structures that have existed for decades in the field of civil aviation,” he points out. “The EU overnight excluded the republic from the existing route network, introducing strict bans on the use of its airspace,” Mr. Panteleev notes, emphasizing “the political motivation of these decisions,” reports ““.