Source below. In the aviation sector sanctions against Russia have been varied and include restrictions on aircraft leasing and critical spare parts, although I don’t have a good idea of their impact so far.
It's interesting to note that the top 5 Russian airlines (based on 2019 passenger stats) all procure their core commercial IT platforms (e.g. reservations) from 2 western companies: Sabre (USA) and Amadeus (Spain):
- Aeroflot: 37M - Sabre
- S7 Airlines: 14M - Amadeus
- Rossiya (part of Aeroflot Group): 12M - Sabre
- Pobeda: 10M - Navitaire (Amadeus)
- Ural Airlines: 10M - Amadeus
These platforms are not only mission critical but are typically so complex that, under normal circumstances at least, it would take an airline ~1-3 years to replace. So were Amadeus/Sabre to switch an airline off it would likely ground that airline within a few days/weeks depending on what operational contingencies they had in place. (btw I welcome any insights to the contrary from experts in this area).
Done en masse such action by Amadeus/Sabre could effectively ground the vast majority of Russian air travel, and much more quickly than missing spare parts. Thats a big deal for the economy and citizens of a country of Russia's geographic size.
Given the catastrophic situation in Ukraine this seems to me like an effective evolution of sanctions against Putin, his government and its supporters; and not too different from the actions Visa and Mastercard have taken in the last few hours (albeit I believe under government sanctions) to block Russian banks from their payment networks.
#airlines #sabre #amadeus #ukraine
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6904560747381108736-ByZi