Undelivered S7 Boeing 737 MAX Gets A Turkish Registration

Simple Flying

By Linnea Ahlgren

Published May 16, 2022

The jet was originally meant for S7 but due to sanctions against Russia, it will fly for the Turkish Airlines Group and AnadoluJet instead.

S7 Airlines has been granted an exception by Russian authorities. Photo: Preston Fielder

It is not only the state-owned airlines of Russia that are suffering from sanctions in the wake of the country's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. OEMs are forbidden from providing aircraft, spare parts, and maintenance support to all Russian carriers, not only those belonging to the government-held Aeroflot Group. Russia's largest privately-owned airline, S7, is also barred from receiving any new planes from Boeing and Airbus. Now, a 737 MAX initially destined for the temporarily suspended oneworld alliance member has been spotted carrying a Turkish registration number.

Not taken up and re-registered

The jet is a 737 MAX 8 completed four months ago at Boeing's Renton facility in Washington. Spotted by aviation photographer Preston Fiedler, the plane took its first flights with the new registration on May 9 and 13. Taking off from Boeing Field (BFI), the May 9 flight lasted for a mere 33 minutes, whereas the aircraft clocked a bit more airtime on May 13, staying up there for 2 hours and 1 minute, according to data from FlightRadar24.com.

As can be seen in the image above, the plane still bears its intended operator's distinctive all-over green livery, along with a partially scraped-off S on its tail. Being built for S7, in a parallel world where war did not break out, it would have had a registration beginning with VP- and joined two other MAX 8s in the aircraft's current fleet. The Siberian carrier had an order for a total of ten, with eight yet to be delivered.

Aeroflot isn't the only Russian airline affected by the imposition of sanctions. Photo: Anna Zvereva via Flickr

Leased from BOC and headed for AnadoluJet

Meanwhile, as things stand, the plane, leased from BOC Aviation, will go to the Turkish Airlines group instead, having been registered as TC-LAG. Mainline carrier Turkish Airlines already has 20 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in its fleet. However, according to Planespotters.net, the aircraft is destined for wholly-owned subsidiary AnadoluJet.

The Ankara-based regional carrier does have five MAX 8 aircraft on order, having opted not to stray from its all-Boeing fleet set-up. The remaining four have already been registered as TC-LAH, TC-LAI, TC-LAJ, and TC-LAK and were, just as TC-LAG, originally intended for S7.

As the airline's Senior Vice President Samil Karakas stated in February that AnadoluJet was hoping to take on new aircraft before the end of 2022, the sanctions seem to have worked out to the carrier's advantage. Boeing and AOC are probably also pleased with the damage-limitation outcome.

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Photo: Getty Images

AnadoluJet operates domestic services as well as flights to Europe and Western Asia. It was founded in 2008 by Sami Alan. While it has operated several makes and models over the years, including ATRs, Embraer E190s, and Airbus A320s, the carrier has settled in with an all-Boeing 737 outfit. Many of its 52 737-800s are getting on a bit in years, with quite a few having passed the 22-year mark. Meanwhile, others land between four and seven. In either case, the arrival of the new MAXs is sure to please AnadoluJet passengers (and lower some of the airline's CO2 emissions along the way).