Russian airlines register 89% of entire aircraft fleet domestically

MOSCOW. April 26 (Interfax) - Russian airlines have registered 89% of the entire aircraft fleet in the Russian registry, Transportation Minister Vitaly Savelyev said during an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

"The process to register civil aircraft in the Russian registry is currently underway, and as of April 25, 1,140 aircraft had been listed in the registry. Overall, 1,288 airliners operate in Russia," Savelyev said.

"There were only 11 employees involved in maintaining airworthiness in the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority (BCAA), where many Russian aircraft had been registered previously. We have a sufficient number of organizations and qualified specialists capable of maintaining the airworthiness of the entire aircraft fleet and ensuring a high level of flight safety," Savelyev added.

Russian airlines operate predominantly foreign-manufactured aircraft, primarily U.S. Boeing and European Airbus models, with nearly all of the airplanes having been registered abroad, mainly in Bermuda, prior to Western countries imposing sanctions against Russia.

The BCAA in March announced that it had suspended the airworthiness certificates of aircraft in the Russian Federation, following which the Russian government ordered the suspension of the 1999 agreement with the BCAA on oversight and supervision of aircraft. This should "create the conditions for registering civil aircraft in the government register of the Russian Federation" and "enable the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) to oversee and supervise maintenance for the aircraft's airworthiness instead of foreign regulators," the government's press service reported.