Russia’s Air Transport Authorities Ban Europe’s Flights
In response to continuous claims of the European Union, Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) and Federal Service for Transport Supervision (Rostransnadzor) are banning Europe’s flights of Kavminvodyavia (KMV), Kuban Airlines, Yakutia and Airlines 400 starting from June 25. Five more airlines, including such majors as KrasAir, UTair, Atlant-Soyuz and Urals Airlines will face the aircraft restrictions.
The joint ruling of Rosaviatsia and Rostransnadzor suggests banning KMV (Russia’s 15th in passenger turnover), Kuban Airlines (17th), Yakutia and Airlines 400 from making regular, charter and one-time flights to Europe. Krasnoyarsk Airlines (KrasAir; 6th), Urals Airlines (9th), Gazpromavia, Atlant-Soyuz (8th) and UTair (4th) will face aircraft restrictions for Europe’s flights, Russia’s Transport Ministry reported.
According to the sources, the exception has been made for KrasAir’s 16 Boeing 737/757/767s and Tu-154/204s, for two A320s of Urals Airlines, four Falcon-900s of Gazpromavia, two Boeing 737s of Atlant-Soyuz and 13 ATR-42s, Gulfstream-IVs and Tu-154Ms of UTair.
The ban and restrictions are imposed due to the airlines’ failure to meet Rostransnadzor requirements and for the purpose of making aircraft and flying procedures correspondent to the E.U. demands, the RF Transport Ministry explained in the news release.
The root cause of the sanctions is the claims of the European Union, Rosaviatsia head Evgeny Bachurin pointed out, specifying that another round of negotiations of Russia’s air transport chiefs and representatives of the European Commission’s Directorate for Transport is slated for June 26. The Directorate notified about initiating blacklisting procedures for above nine airlines far back on June 11, said a source familiar with the situation.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 20, 2007
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