Air Lease Corp. disclosed Friday it is writing off $802.4 million for leased aircraft trapped in Russia it doesn’t expect to recover following Western sanctions against the country for the invasion of Ukraine.
The broader significance of the impairment charge is that “lessors are going to treat country risk differently than they had in the past and will charge airlines accordingly,” Cowen equity analyst Helane Becker said in a client note. “We expect lease rates to trend higher.”
So far only 32 of 513 Russian-operated aircraft managed by foreign leasing companies have been returned to their owners, aviation consulting firm IBA Aero said in an analysis published Monday. The returned aircraft include two Boeing 747-400 freighters, a 747-8 freighter and a 757-200 converted freighter.
