With the war in Ukraine entering a second year, the chances of Russia returning detained aircraft to Irish based aviation lessors like SMBC, Avolon, and Jetair are close to zero, according to the major players in the sector. Certainly not within any reasonable period of time. As evidence, these major global players point to the Russian aviation industry’s significant dependency on foreign-made aeroplanes and the steps taken by the Putin regime to hold on to foreign-leased aircraft when economic sanctions were introduced by the west last March. Ten months on from the invasion of Ukraine, there has been no sign…