The government of Russian Federation has started the development of measures for funding the leasing of foreign aircraft for the Russian carriers with the participation of VEB, Kommersant reports.
Vladimir Putin has instructed the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Economics and Ministry of Finance to prepare proposals on state support of aircraft leasing “without taking into account the country of production”. He stated this fact during the meeting on transportation safety following the results of Yak-42 crash. Lokomotiv hockey team has died in the crash. The state has only funded the acquisition of indigenous aircraft before. But since the Russian aircraft industry is not able to meet the requirements of airlines, Dmitry Medvedev declared the possibility of supporting the acquisition of foreign aircraft on September 8th (the next day after Yak-42 crash).
"The authorities intend to provide the fast replacement of airlines’ fleet by funding program after taking Tu-134s, Yak-40s, Yak-42s, An-24s and An-26s out of service since January 1st 2012",— Ministry of Transport explains. The Ministry of Transport assures that the program will be started in January 2012 and it will be financed by VEB.
Ilyushin Finance & Co. (IFC) has reported that Russian airlines are operating around 120 Tu-134 and Yak-42 aircraft at present. Taking into account the growth of passenger traffic, the demand for these vehicles until 2020 will be 130. "It is impossible to meet these requirements by means of national aircraft industry",— said CEO of IFC, Alexander Rubtsov. According to him, the declared plans on production of SSJ-100 and Аn-148 for 2011 have not been implemented – instead of 12 aircraft of each type, the industry will deliver only five or six of them.
IFC believes that the state will have to compensate about 50% or even 100% of aircraft’s price taking into account the complex financial condition of most of the Russian carriers. The lessors are estimating the possible scope of state investments at $3,5 billion, considering the necessity of acquisition of at least 300 foreign aircraft. However, a source from one of the leasing companies reports, that the state has allocated only 2.5 billion rubles for supporting the national aircraft leasing for 2011. VEB has promised that “it will take all the necessary steps in order to become the key element of aircraft leasing financing".
