In the budget of the National Welfare Fund (NWF), 3.5 billion of the 300 billion rubles previously allocated for the purchase of aircraft from foreign owners remained. This was reported by “Kommersant”.
To date, approximately 150 aircraft have been purchased, 86 of which belong to the Aeroflot group, the rest to Ural Airlines, S7 airline and charter company iFly.
The newspaper explains that funds are needed to insure relations with foreign lessors whose aircraft have remained on Russian territory since February last year due to sanctions imposed on the country.
The money from the National Welfare Fund was allocated as a concessional loan at a rate of 1.5 percent for 15 years. The new owner of the aircraft was the leasing company NLK-Finance, controlled by the Federal Air Transport Agency; As stated in the article, the funds were transferred by its parent company NSK.
Kommersant’s interlocutors suggested that even if the limit of 300 billion rubles is increased, all remaining funds from the National Welfare Fund will be used for the placement of Aeroflot aircraft. However, the issue of allocating additional funds from the National Welfare Fund is not currently being discussed.
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