Polet ceases scheduled passenger operations

Russia’s Polet Airlines on Monday suspended all flights.  On Friday, the Moscow Arbitration Court imposed on Polet a monitoring procedure because of a debt of 163 million rubles in lease payments, russian newspaper „Kommersant“ wrote.

The basis of this was a claim by Ilyushin Finance Co. (IFC) of 28 March. According to IFC the debt of Polet to IFC in lease payments amounts to 163,150,000 rubles. The court documents state that in 2011-2012, IFC and Polet signed a lease of three cargo aircraft AN-124-100 “Ruslan”. Soon after Polet has ceased to pay lease payments, and IFC asked the Voronezh arbitration court to intervene.

On June 25, 2013, the court approved a settlement agreement providing for the payment by Polet of the lease payments in the amount of $ 3,490,000 (the remaining amount of the debt falls on debt payments for the operation of three owned by IFC cargo Il-96-400 in the period 2009-2013).

However, as the documents of the arbitration show, the airline did not comply with the terms of the settlement agreement. Two “Ruslan” AN-124-100 were then transferred to the LLC “Tehnolizingsteyt” and OOO “Aerotranslizing” and continued to operate, while the 3rd remained in the ownership of IFC inoperative.