SCAT picks up an ex-Belavia B737 MAX

SCAT Airlines (DV, Shimkent) has taken delivery of its second B737-8; a jet that was originally destined for the now sanctioned Belavia .

UP-B3737 (msn 43332) flew from Everett via Reykjavik Keflavik to Tashkent Islam Karimov on August 4-5, 2022, but has yet to be ferried onwards to Kazakhstan.

On lease from Air Lease Corporation, the 3-year-old Boeing jet was formerly registered as EW-529PA but was never actually delivered to the Belarussian flag carrier which has been under EU and US sanctions since late 2021 for its alleged role in a state-orchestrated people smuggling ring involving the transport of migrants and refugees mostly from the Middle East to the EU's borders in Poland and Lithuania. Under the sanctions, Western lessors and manufacturers are not allowed to lease or sell aircraft to the state-owned carrier.

Belavia managed to take a single B737-8 from Air Lease Corporation in 2021 but subsequently purchased it before sanctions kicked in. It recently reactivated it after Russia ungrounded the type.

For its part, SCAT Airlines already operates a single B737-8 and a single B737-9. It has five more B737-9s on order from undisclosed lessors.

Turkey's Corendon Airlines recently took a single B737-8 also originally assigned to Belavia.

ch aviation