Aeroflot, Rossiya, S7 and Azur Air have announced the suspension of all international flights in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Aeroflot
On Saturday, 5th March, Aeroflot announced that it would suspend all of its international flights, except to Minsk in Belarus from 8th March.
Aeroflot will continue to operate four daily flights to Minsk. The decision came after many countries and aircraft manufacturers imposed sanctions on Russian airlines and companies.
The announcement to suspend international flights came after Russia's aviation agency recommended the Russian airlines operating leased planes registered outside the country not to fly abroad to avoid the seizure of the aircraft at foreign destinations. According to the agency, all flights from foreign destinations must be ceased on Monday at 21:00 GMT.
Although the EU has banned all Russian aircraft, planes owned by the member state owners are allowed to enter the EU airspace as a scope of the sanctions. The leasing firms have already terminated their agreements as part of the recently imposed sanctions.
Aeroflot Fleet
Aeroflot has a fleet of 187 active aircraft, comprising 146 narrow-bodies and 41 wide-bodies.
Currently, the Russian flag carrier operates 62 Airbus A320s, 35 A321s, 38 Boeing 737s and 11 Sukhoi SuperJet 100s in the narrow-body segment. Meanwhile, Aeroflot flies 12 Airbus A330s, 7 A350s and 22 Boeing 777s in the wide-body segment, according to data from airfleets.net. Besides orders for Russian narrow-bodies, Aeroflot has 13 Airbus A350-900s on order from the European planemaker.
Aeroflot had scheduled flights to destinations in the United States, Middle East, Asia and Europe. Before the sanctions were imposed, Aeroflot flew to numerous cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Miami in the United States; Dubai, Beirut, Tehran and Tel Aviv in the Middle East; London, Paris, Barcelona and Rome, among others in Europe.
S7 Airlines
Russia's second-largest airline, S7, has also cancelled all international flights effectively from Saturday, 5th March.
S7 had previously cancelled all flights to Europe from 26th February to 13th March, which does not seem to be resuming soon.
S7 had regular flights to destinations in Croatia, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, and France in the European Union. It also operated flights to Egypt and Jordan, among others in North Africa. S7 also cancelled its international flights as its leased planes are likely to be seized abroad.
S7 Airlines Fleet
S7 Airlines currently operates an all narrow-body fleet of 106 aircraft comprising 4 Airbus A319s, 48 A320s, 16 A321s, 21 Boeing 737s and 17 Embraer E170s, according to data from airfleets.net. According to ch-aviation, 100 S7 Airlines' aircraft are on a lease; most of them are owned by western lessors such as AerCap and ALC (10), among others.
S7 does not want its plane to be seized abroad as two Russian airlines, Pobeda and Ural Airlines operated planes, have already been seized abroad.
Rossiya Airlines
Rossiya Airlines, a subsidiary of Aeroflot, has also decided to suspend international flights temporarily starting 8th March (00:00 MSK) due to new additional circumstances impeding flight operations.
"International services scheduled by Rossiya Airlines will also be suspended. Passengers of cancelled international flights are eligible for a full refund of tickets."
Aeroflot statement
Rossiya Airlines currently operates a fleet of 119 aircraft, split between 100 narrow-body and 19 wide-body aircraft. Its fleet comprises 18 Airbus A319s, 8 A320s, 11 Boeing 737s and 63 Sukhoi SuperJet 100s in the narrow-body sector along with 9 Boeing 747s and 10 Boeing 777 wide-bodies, according to data from airfleets.net.
Azur Airlines
Azur Air will also suspend international flights from Tuesday. Passengers holding round-trip tickets won't be allowed to travel from midnight on Sunday with the charter airlines. However, Azur Air will be operating flights for Russians who are abroad in Egypt, Turkey, Mexico, Dubai, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Vietnam and the Maldives.
Azur Airlines currently has an all Boeing fleet of 33 aircraft comprising five Boeing 737s and 10 757 narrow-bodies along with 12 Boeing 767s and six 777s wide-bodies.
