Russias largest airline, Aeroflot, is poised to resume routine scheduled flights to Kazakhstan, regardless of a substantial portion of its fleet being at the heart of legal action from plane-leasing firms seeking the return of their aircraft.The airline stated in a statement on Jan.
27 that it is already selling tickets for flights from Russia to Astana, Almaty and Atyrau, which are due to reboot on Feb.
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Aeroflot says it will use Airbus A320 airplanes on those routes.An official in Kazakhstans government has informed Eurasianet that just airplane formerly bought outright by Aeroflot from foreign leasing companies will be permitted to service those flights.
The aircrafts that we will enable to fly into Kazakhstan are simply Russian-owned, so they have been purchased out from the leasing business, the main said.Reuters reported in May that Aeroflot had purchased 8 Airbus A330 models from foreign leasing business.
It doubts, nevertheless, that these are the exact same airplanes that will be utilized to bring passengers to Kazakhstan, given that Aeroflot referred in its declaration to A320s, which are created to finish shorter-haul flights.Aeroflot says it prepares two everyday flights to Astana, three to Almaty, and two flights weekly to Atyrau.The number of leased aircrafts that Russia has purchased from lessors is only a portion of the total of around 400 approximately that were stranded there after airplane leases were terminated as a result of European Union sanctions.
In the wake of those sanctions, Russian airline companies refrained from traveling to a lot of foreign destinations out of issue that the aircraft might be taken.
Reuters reported in December that airplane leasing companies are looking for $8 billion in damages from lots of insurance providers over their aversion to pay out payment for loss of the airplanes.
The news company cites insurance providers as arguing that the planes might yet be returned.
At present, Aeroflot subsidiary Rossiya Airlines is the only Russian-owned carrier to use direct flights to Kazakhstan.
The only option is Kazakh-owned SCAT Airlines, which runs flights from the capital, Astana, to Moscow.This post was originally released on Eurasianet.org.