The Russian government has announced that it has held meetings to discuss the possibility of launching an airline that will be structured in order to service the Crimea region without violating the current EU/US sanctions regime.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin stated that a government meeting had "addressed the issue of creating an airline to ensure regular air travel to Crimea with a domestic fleet."
The current sanctions have grounded Aeroflot subsidiary Dobrolyot by invalidating its leasing agreement with Irish lessors AWAS. Russian airlines currently lease 90% of their aircraft from Western lessors.
Oleg Panteleyev, head of the AviaPort information agency, told Russian media that the government had anticipated the possibility of Russian airlines losing their Western leases as early as April.
"A way out would be to create a special airline servicing only flights to and from Crimea that would only employ Russian-made aircraft", Pantelyev said, adding that this could be accomplished by the end of this year’s tourist season.
Russian government states plans to start “sanctions-busting” airline
