The Brazilian ambassador to Belarus, Bernard Georges Leopold de Garcia Klingle, indicated that they hope to continue exporting Embraer airplanes for the national airline of that country.
In an interview with a local media outlet, García Klingle was asked about the situation of Belavia and its five E-Jets, one of them E175 and four E195 (they also leased three E195-E2s that were returned to AerCap).
The diplomat pointed out that, for the moment, this issue is not without difficulties. «Embraer is a privately-owned company and is under strong pressure from countries that impose sanctions. More than 60% of the parts used by the company in aircraft construction are produced by other countries, including the United States, which means that some of them are subject to sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine, so it is still difficult to talk about what awaits us in the near future.»
But on the other hand, he added that «we would very much like to remain in the Belarusian market or even increase our presence. We are making our best efforts to overcome these difficulties. We are serious; we are doing our best. At this moment, I see many difficulties that prevent us from fully restoring cooperation in this area in the short term. But this encourages us even more to seek a solution to this problem.»
What happened to the returned E2s?
The reason for the forced return of the Embraer E195-E2 was the sanctions imposed on the government of Belarus after a Ryanair Boeing 737 was forced to land in the country to detain a journalist critical of the regime.
Thus, AerCap had no choice but to recover the three E195-E2s, which currently operate with Belgian airline TUI Fly.
Today, the Belavia fleet consists of 13 aircraft: 5 Boeing 737-800, one Boeing 737 MAX 8, one Embraer E175, and 4 Embraer E195.
Belavia’s Network
After the forced diversion of flight FR4978 from Ryanair to Minsk while operating between Athens and Vilnius in May 2021 to detain a journalist and opposition activist to President Aleksandr Lukashenko, international air connectivity with Western Europe in Belarus has been gradually declining to receive another blow after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2023. And Belavia was the most affected by this.
This was the network of the national airline of Belarus in August 2019:
While this is the one for August 2023:
Currently, Belavia is responsible for 78.3% of the capacity offered in Minsk, followed by Aeroflot with 13.2% and Ural Airlines with 4.3%.
See also: Conviasa flights between Havana, Minsk, and Tehran: negotiations continue but plans are long-term
