Russia's Pobeda airline planning insurance settlement for 2 more aircraft

MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) - The Pobeda airline is in negotiations with foreign lessors for insurance settlements on two more Boeing 737-800 aircraft, the company's CEO Dmitry Tyshchuk said.

"Out of the aircraft owned by foreign lessors, we have two left. Yes, we plan to conduct insurance settlements for them," Tyshchuk told journalists during the airline's tenth anniversary celebration.

Insurance settlement and the subsequent transfer of aircraft from foreign to Russian registries allows for their use on international flights without the risk of seizure. Pobeda currently has 10 aircraft with dual registration.

The company operates a fleet of 42 Boeing 737s. Some are leased from foreign lessors, including the Irish companies BOC Aviation and SMBC Aviation Capital, and others from foreign-registered subsidiaries of Russian banks. Pobeda added an aircraft previously operated by the now-defunct Royal Flight airline to its fleet at the end of 2023.

In February 2022, shortly after the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions following the start of the military operation in Ukraine, three Pobeda Boeing 737s registered in Bermuda were seized at foreign airports and reclaimed by the lessor.

Pobeda is a low-cost airline and part of the Aeroflot group . It was established in September 2014 to replace Dobrolet, which ceased operations a month earlier due to EU sanctions in connection with flights to Crimea.