Two new Twitter accounts are tracking the jets operated by Russian oligarchs and Vladimir Putin in real-time. Jack Sweeney, the creator of the “Elon’s Jet” viral Twitter account, is now tracking the planes of some of Russia’s wealthiest people.
Putin’s jet
Last week, Russia invaded Ukraine, and the country has received a bunch of sanctions in the past few days. For example, the European Union decided to ban Russian flights and aircraft from its airspace. Not shortly after, airlines from 36 nations were excluded from Russian airspace.
The ban has impacted not only the commercial services from carriers like Aeroflot but also a few very wealthy Russian oligarchs, which won’t be allowed to use their aircraft in many parts of the world.
In the midst of this conflict, Jack Sweeney, a college freshman that has been tracking Elon Musk's private jet for the last few months, launched a new campaign. He now has two new Twitter accounts, Russian Oligarch Jets (@RUOligarchJets) and Russian VIP & Putin Jets (@PutinJet). He also runs several other bots accounts, tracking the jets from several celebrities including Donald Trump and Bill Gates.
On February 25, Jack Sweeney said,
“So yeah, @PutinJet is live now :), don’t expect this to be too accurate though there are a dozen VIP Russian jets, and ADS-B coverage isn’t great in Russia.”
One day later, he launched the account following the jets from Russian oligarchs. He started these accounts after receiving numerous requests to track the planes of Russian billionaires.
A look at the data
As Bloomberg wrote, Jack Sweeney’s accounts allow easy accessibility into the lives of today’s billionaires (something a few of them don’t like very much, as seen by Musk’s US$5,000 offer to Sweeney to stop tracking his Gulfstream). The accounts are something like the “People Magazine” version of corporate aviation intelligence.
In Russia, Sweeney is following the aircraft of 21 Russian oligarchs, including Vladimir Potanin, Norilsk Nikel, Lukoil and Vagit Alekperov, Roman Abramovich, Alexander Abramov, Oleg Deripaska, Mikhail Prokhorov, Alisher Usmanov, and Viktor Vekselberg. He is also tracking any Russian VIP jets Vladimir Putin may use.
For example, today, an Airbus A319 owned by Alexander Abramov (registered in Germany, D-APGS) landed in Los Angeles, California, after flying for about 11 hours and ten minutes. Another Abramov’s Airbus A319 (D-ALXX) landed today in Abu Dhabi, after a short flight from Bahrain.
Sanction’s impacts on Russian airlines
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has profoundly impacted the commercial services and other partnerships of the airlines in the country and abroad.
Last week, Delta Air Lines decided to end its codeshare agreement with Russia’s State carrier, Aeroflot. Today, Manchester United finally announced it is cutting ties with Aeroflot after serving as the club’s official carrier for nearly a decade. Moreover, Aeroflot has already canceled hundreds of flights outside of Russia, including several services to countries that have not imposed any type of ban (like Mexico).
Additionally, the Russian airlines will lose much of their fleets after suffering the cancellation of aircraft leases. For example, Aercap has around 5% of its total fleet leased in Russia.
What do you think about Jack Sweeney’s Twitter accounts following Russian oligarchs and other billionaires’ jet movements around the world? Let us know in the comments below.