Komiaviatrans (KO, Syktyvkar) re-registered all five active E145LIs it operates into the Russian aircraft registry on December 6, the federal air transport regulator (Rosaviatsia) said in a statement.
All five Embraer regional jets were previously registered in Bermuda as VQ-BWL (msn 14500804), VQ-BWM (msn 14500823), VQ-BWO (msn 14500815), VQ-BWP (msn 145781), and VQ-BWU (msn 145701). All of them are leased from Gaztechleasing.
Komiaviatrans also owns a sixth E145 which is stored at Alverca and has never been operated by the Russian carrier yet.
The Russian authorities have long been trying to convince local airlines to re-register their aircraft in the national registry. The majority of Russia-based commercial aircraft are currently registered in Bermuda. According to the ch-aviation fleets module, these are currently 709 aircraft operated by 29 carriers, including aircraft operated by Aeroflot Group, S7 Airlines, Ural Airlines, UTair, and others. A further thirty-six aircraft are registered in Ireland.
"From the point of view of international law, these aircraft cannot be considered part of Russian aviation....
