British low-cost airline easyJet faces a lawsuit seeking at least $72 million over six leased Airbus aircraft it allegedly abandoned after citing sanctions against Russia to terminate their contracts.
The lawsuit was filed in London’s High Court and concerns jets left in Madrid and Cyprus. easyJet said it will defend the case in full.
The company suing easyJet, STLC Europe Eight Leasing Limited, is an Irish aircraft-leasing subsidiary of GTLK Europe, the international leasing business of Russia’s state-owned State Transport Leasing Company, known as GTLK. GTLK Europe acquired the six Airbus A319s by March 2018, with easyJet’s leases already in place.
Ireland’s High Court ordered GTLK Europe and GTLK Europe Capital into liquidation on May 31, 2023. It appointed liquidators to sell their assets and recover money owed to them to repay creditors. The lawsuit against easyJet is part of that effort.
The Financial Times reported that the claim includes at least $36.7 million in unpaid rent and interest, $32.5 million in lost aircraft value and €2.8 million in airport charges.
easyJet said EU sanctions on Russia prevented it from maintaining or repairing the aircraft. STLC Europe Eight disagrees, saying the planes were outside of Russia and the leasing company was based in Ireland.
Three jets stored in Cyprus were later recovered and sold. The liquidators say their poor condition lowered the sale prices. The other three aircraft, stored in Madrid, have not been sold.
The six aircraft had already been grounded well before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Bloomberg reported in April 2022 that they were each more than 11 years old, and had been in storage since March 2020, citing Cirium fleet data.
The aircraft were therefore parked at the start of the COVID-19 collapse in air travel, about two years before the sanctions dispute. easyJet confirmed the lease terminations to Bloomberg at the time.
The EU adopted broad aviation sanctions on February 25, 2022, the day after Russia launched its full-scale invasion. The measures restricted aircraft, spare parts and equipment supplies to Russia, along with related maintenance, insurance, technical assistance and financing. They were intended to cut Russian aviation off from Western equipment and support.
GTLK itself was added to the EU sanctions list on April 8, 2022. The measures froze its assets and restricted payments and other resources provided to the company.
Those restrictions could also extend to companies owned or controlled by a sanctioned parent, even when the subsidiaries were based outside Russia. GTLK Europe’s Irish registration therefore did not automatically exempt it from sanctions.
In July 2023, an Irish court ruled that independent liquidators controlled the Irish companies’ assets. That removed an EU sanctions obstacle to recovering and selling those assets to repay creditors, although UK and US sanctions still applied.
easyJet began flying in November 1995, initially linking London Luton with Glasgow and Edinburgh. Founded by Stelios Haji-Ioannou, it grew into one of Europe’s leading low-cost airlines.