ArmInfo. The plane of the Russian S7 airline was not arrested. The operation of the aircraft will be resumed after clarification of issues with the documentation, the Civil Aviation Committee (CAC) of Armenia said.
On Thursday, March 3, information spread about the temporary cancellation of a number of international flights of S7 airlines, including flights to the CIS countries. According to the "Aviatorshchina" telegram channel, the reason for this decision was the detention of the aircraft of the Russian carrier in Yerevan at the request of the lessor. The source reports that the permission for flights of Airbus aircraft with the number VP-BSL, which were leased by the Irish SMBC Aviation Capital company, which is a division of the Japanese Sumitomo Mitsui financial group, was allegedly suspended by Yerevan. There was also information that now S7 will switch to the use of Boeing aircraft in foreign flights. Later, S7 Airlines issued an official statement. The airline admitted that due to the restrictions imposed, it was forced to only partially reduce the flight program and cancel some flights to international destinations. The air carrier did not confirm the incident in Yerevan, but did not refute it either.
According to the Civil Aviation Committee of the Republic of Armenia, on March 3, a few hours before the arrival of the A 320 aircraft of the Russian Siberia Airlines at the Yerevan Zvartnots, when the plane was still in the airspace by the Russian Federation, there were already problems with its flight documents
"By the decision of the airline, the plane landed at the Mineralnye Vody airport, after which it arrived at the Zvartnots airport. In this regard, the scheduled flight from Yerevan became impossible. Problems arose between the airline and the aviation authorities of the country in which the aircraft was registered, as well as by its lessor. The aircraft was not arrested, permission for its flights was temporarily suspended. The flight from Yerevan was operated by another aircraft of the airline.
As noted in the CAC, the department is in corrective correspondence with the aviation authorities of the country of registration of the aircraft on issues that have arisen. The airline operator and aviation authorities of the Russian Federation have been informed about the problem. "The operation of the aircraft will be resumed after clarification of issues with the documentation," the report says.
Russian aviation came under tough sanctions of the European Union, which refused to supply Airbus aircrafts and spare parts of them to Russia. Moreover, the Europeans demanded to terminate all leasing agreements and return even those aircraft that had already been delivered to Russian airlines.
