Belarus' Belavia Airlines in talks with Boeing on renewing collaboration

MINSK. Dec 22 (Interfax) - Belarus' Belavia Airlines is in talks with U.S. Boeing to renew collaboration cooperation, Belavia CEO Igor Cherginets said.

"We are already meeting with our partner. We had a meeting with the vice president of Boeing. It was a good, positive meeting, and we discussed how we are currently expanding and restoring our collaboration. The airline's fleet will expand in 2026, thus greatly simplifying maintaining aircraft, procuring spare parts, as well as acquiring software. Sanctions have been lifted, and financial issues, I mean rendering payments in dollars, are also becoming easier accordingly," Cherginets said on First Information state TV.

Cherginets also commented on the possibility of organizing flights between Belarus and the United States.

"Everyone is asking about outstanding intergovernmental agreements on air service between the countries. This is the cornerstone, and flights are impossible without it. Therefore, we hope that an agreement will emerge in the near future. The government will work on it, and it will be signed, then we can begin some planning," Cherginets said.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko previously said that Belarus has a sufficient fleet of Boeing aircraft, though intends to purchase spare parts from the U.S. once sanctions have been lifted. He also announced an agreement with President Vladimir Putin to purchase Russian aircraft.

U.S. President Donald Trump's representative, John Cole, at a meeting with Lukashenko in Minsk on September 11, said that the U.S. had lifted sanctions against Belavia that had been in effect since June 2022. The United States Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) removed the carrier from the sanctions list in November.

State-owned Belavia Airlines is headquartered in Minsk. Most flights operate from the airport in the Belarusian capital.