Russia seeks to lease aircraft from Vietnam after Ethiopia refused

Filed 43m ago · Via NV · The Buffoon Desk

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Doh De Oh

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: European Parliament · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Russia's transport ministry has proposed a wet-lease deal to Vietnam, under which Vietnamese carriers would supply aircraft along with crew and maintenance to Russian airlines. Minister Andrei Nikitin confirmed the proposal was sent and is under review, framing it as a way to expand air travel cooperation between the two countries.

Russia has been locked out of legal Boeing and Airbus purchases and servicing since the invasion of Ukraine, and those aircraft make up two-thirds of its civil fleet and 90% of passenger travel. Similar wet-lease requests to Central Asian states, Qatar, Kuwait, and Ethiopia have gone nowhere, with Ethiopia declining last year over concerns about triggering U.S. secondary sanctions.

Nearly 20% of the fleet among Russia's largest carriers has reportedly sat idle this summer, well above normal maintenance downtime, with 130 of 673 aircraft grounded across the eleven biggest airlines.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

When you've been turned down by Ethiopia and you're now hoping Vietnam says yes, that tells you something about how thin the list of friends has gotten. Sanctions don't ground planes by magic, they ground them one missing part at a time, and eventually you're asking someone else to fly your own routes for you. A fleet sitting idle in the sun isn't a strategy, it's just a parking lot with wings.

Source: Read the original at NV → Scored: Doh De Oh · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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