The fallout to the global aviation industry from Russia's invasion of Ukraine is spreading beyond the airspace closings over the conflict zone as airlines, lessors and manufacturers face up to growing risks of doing business with Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed on Friday to stay in Kyiv as his troops battled Russian invaders advancing towards the capital in the biggest attack on a European state since World War 2. Opsgroup, an aviation industry co-operative that shares information on flight risks, said any aircraft travelling through Russian airspace should have contingency plans in place for closed airspace due to risks or sanctions.“Russia are unlikely to initiate their own sanctions and airspace bans as they would not wish to see Aeroflot receive reciprocal bans,” Opsgroup said. “However, they may react in response to sanctions from other states.
The governing council of the International Civil Aviation Organization , a UN body, will discuss the Ukraine conflict at a meeting on Friday, a spokesperson said. Aviation bosses are also worried about the effect on dealings with Russian companies. Sanctions could disrupt payments to leasing firms and affect the supply of aircraft parts.Russian companies have 980 passenger jets in service, of which 777 are leased, according to analytics firm Cirium. Of these, two thirds, or 515 jets, with an estimated market value of about $10bn, are rented from foreign firms.