RBC announced that Russia has purchased 165 aircraft from foreign lessors

Russian airlines purchased 165 aircraft from Western lessors in the years 2023 and 2024. This represents about 40% of the fleet owned by foreign lessors that remain in Russia, according to RBC. 

Why are planes being returned? The buyback is necessary to remove foreign registrations from aircraft, so that their owners (lessors) will not interfere with the operation of the aircraft on foreign routes. Ownership rights to the purchased aircraft are transferred to a state insurance company, NSK, which also owns the leasing company, NLK-Finance. Through this latter company, the aircraft will be released to Russian airlines. NSC is controlled by a Federal State Unitary Enterprise, "Administration of Civil Airports," which is part of the Federal Air Transport Agency. Funds for the NSC were provided through a concessional loan with a rate of 1.5% over a 15-year period.