Aircraft leasing companies have launched a multinational effort to persuade safety authorities to allow grounded planes that were returned from Russia without full maintenance records back into commercial service.

Declan Kelly, chair of Aircraft Leasing Ireland, said the trade body had begun an “asset preservation study” with regulators in Europe, the US and Bermuda to “come up with a mechanism of how to repatriate those aircraft into our global system”.

Sanctions imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine triggered a global rush among overseas leasing groups to recover more than 500 aircraft worth an estimated $10bn that were stuck in the country. Irish aircraft leasing groups are among the worst affected, with planes worth more than $4bn leased to Russian airlines.