Russian leasing market growing cautiously

The Russian aircraft leasing sector grew in 2013 despite the overall stagnation on the country’s leasing market. The share of aircraft taken by Russian carriers from Russian lessors under operational leasing schemes is growing gradually. Operational leasing deals involve only Western airliner types: extending the practise to cover new Russian models, such as the Sukhoi SSJ 100, remains an impossible task due to the current blanks in the Russian legislation and the absence of mechanisms for estimating such aircraft’s residual value.

The aircraft leasing segment helped the entire leasing industry finish 2013 with positive results, but the growth rate is expected to drop this year. “The leasing market will not grow by more than 5% in 2014 even according to the most optimistic scenario,” Pavel Samiyev, deputy CEO of the rating agency Expert RA, said late last year. “In the first nine months of 2013, the aircraft leasing segment helped the market in general demonstrate some modest growth. Without that segment, we would have recorded a drop of 15.5%; in 2014 the aircraft leasing segment may grow even less.” Even despite this growth, foreign lessors continue to dominate the Russian commercial aviation market.