On April 14, 2022, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) announced that it had added an additional ten aircraft to its list of aircraft that have recently flown into Belarus or Russia in apparent violation of the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR“) (the “List”). Among these 10 aircraft are seven Belarusian owned/operated commercial aircraft. BIS also revised the tail numbers of 32 aircraft already on the List to account for the apparent re-registration of these aircraft in Russia and removed two Russian aircraft from the List. The April 14 listings follow previous listings (on March 18, 2022 and March 30, 2022) of Russian aircraft that have flown into Russia in apparent violation of the EAR. Our prior blog post regarding the publication of the initial List on March 18, 2022 can be found here.
The List, which currently totals 153 aircraft, with 146 Russian owned/operated aircraft and seven Belarusian owned/operated aircraft, is published by BIS as a notice to the general public that the provision of services, whether by a US person or non-US person, relating to the listed aircraft is subject to General Prohibition Ten (§ 736.2(b)(10) of the EAR) and requires authorization from BIS. General Prohibition 10 prohibits the sale, transfer, export, lease, financing, refueling, service, maintenance, repair, or provision of spare parts relating to the listed aircraft. Restrictions on such services makes international flights by these aircraft outside of Russia and Belarus virtually impossible.
BIS has indicated that this List may be updated in the future. BIS has also emphasized that General Prohibition Ten applies whenever any person (whether US or non-US) has knowledge that an EAR violation has occurred, is about to occur, or is intended to occur in connection with an aircraft or other items that are subject to the EAR, even if the aircraft or other items are not on the List.
In addition to publishing and updating the List, the US Government has also imposed other measures and initiated enforcement actions against Russian aircraft and airlines. Specifically, on March 1, 2022, the US Department of Transportation and its Federal Aviation Administration issued orders prohibiting Russian aircraft and airlines from entering and using US airspace. Our blog posts regarding this airspace ban can be found here and here. On April 7, 2022, BIS issued temporary denial orders denying the export privileges of three Russian airlines – Aeroflot, Azur Air, and UTair – due to their violations of the EAR. BIS’s press release regarding this enforcement action can be found here.
