Quote:
Originally Posted by you&me
In addition that, I saw something yesterday that Putin is allowing Russian airlines to continue domestic flights with foreign owned planes... A huge majority of planes flown by Russian airlines are leased from foreign companies and valued at ~$10B... By keeping the planes domestically, he prevents the leasing companies from being able to repo the planes... He's effectively facilitated a $10B theft.
Edit - https://fortune.com/2022/03/15/russi...fiscate-theft/ |
I think I read somewhere that only about half of those planes are leased. So still a huge chunk, but really the bigger issue is maintenance and spare parts. With so many international flights canceled they could probably have made do with what they had left, but only until the planes are up for maintence.
The main maintenance hub for Russian planes was in Germany, and obviously the spare parts are also produced abroad.
So most likely those stolen planes will be stripped for parts to keep other planes running longer.
But yeah, it's another terrible move in desperation.
Russia still has countries that are friendly enough that they could run some mandatory trade through them. Have someone in Pakistan or Kazakhstan buy what you need, then buy it from them for example. But all that is made a lot more difficult if you destroy your reputation as a sane, reliable business partner.