Royal Flight Adds a Boeing 777 to Its Fleet

 

Russian passenger airline Royal Flight has become the latest operator to add a Boeing 777 widebody jet to its fleet. The new aircraft, with tail number EI-XLP and the registration VQ-BGL, comes re-configured for three-class seating and has GE90 engines. It joins the airline’s existing fleet of 32 narrow-body Airbus A320s and 16 wide-body Boeing 747s. Rossiya Airlines, which operates Royal Flight, is part of the Aeroflot group and serves destinations in Russia’s Far East.

The Russian airline recently bought 10 777-300ERs from an unnamed lessor, according to a statement. This buyout was part of a program to replace aging Boeing planes with newer ones. Aeroflot will continue to look for buyout deals, it says.

As of March last year, the airline owned 22 777-200ERs, which makes up 70 percent of its international flights. It is also the Rusia 777 only carrier in the world that flies the Boeing model to more than 150 destinations worldwide.

One of Russia’s most popular license plates is a scornful expression for drivers who “boor” others on the road: “XAM.” (Russians use letters for the sounds of words, not their meanings.) Other popular plates express a similar attitude: “OPK” (“Orc”), "CPY" ("I defecate") and others.

Russians have an innate sense of humor. It’s evident in their slang and in the way they interact with each other. And it’s also apparent in their taste in entertainment. Many movies and shows made in Russia are very sarcastic. The most famous example is the TV series "Doktor Zhivago." The show was sarcastic and funny, but the characters were portrayed as real people.

After Moscow started its special military operation in Ukraine, the West imposed unprecedented sanctions on its aviation industry and forced some lessors to cancel contracts with their Russian customers. These actions stranded about $10 billion worth of Western passenger jets in Russia. Some have been able to find replacement parts, but others have not.

Aeroflot has held exploratory talks with some major Western leasing firms about using state funds to buy some of the jets, according to sources familiar with the matter. But the lessors would have to comply with a range of European Union export controls, including the requirement that they provide technical support for their aircraft in Russia.

The US government’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has identified more than two dozen commercial aircraft that likely violate the EAR by entering Belarus from third countries without the proper export authorization. These aircraft have been operating in Europe, Africa and Asia. Some have been reexported to Belarus, including several that were acquired by Royal Flight and other Russian passenger airlines.