Aeroflot says it will suspend international flights.
Russia’s state airline, Aeroflot, said on Saturday that it would suspend all international flights from Tuesday “due to additional circumstances that prevent the performance of flights.” The cancellation will also apply to its subsidiaries Aurora and Rossiya, the airline said, though Aeroflot said it would continue to fly to Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Russia had been enjoying a rare and robust aviation recovery as the only global market where domestic air traffic last year exceeded that of 2019, according to the IATA, a global trade group. But the airline industry there has been hit hard in the last two weeks, as countries around the world have imposed flight bans and sanctions on Russia because of President Vladimir V. Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. Mr. Putin and President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus are allies, and Russian forces have attacked Ukraine from Belarus. Separately, Russia’s aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya, recommended on Saturday that Russian airlines with planes registered in foreign jurisdictions suspend all flights abroad from Sunday because of fears that they could be seized by foreign governments. The suspension effectively leaves a handful of Western companies with no way of recovering hundreds of planes leased to Russian carriers. Recent sanctions gave those leasing companies until March 28 to end their contracts with airlines in Russia. With dozens of Western countries and Russia having issued reciprocal flight bans, the only hope those companies had for recovering their planes would have been to have Russian airlines deliver them to a neutral country, experts said. Saturday’s ban appeared to dash those hopes.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2022-03-07/sky/aeroflot-says-it-will-suspend-international-flights
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Aeroflot says it will suspend international flights.
Russia’s state airline, Aeroflot, said on Saturday that it would suspend all international flights from Tuesday “due to additional circumstances that prevent the performance of flights.” The cancellation will also apply to its subsidiaries Aurora and Rossiya, the airline said, though Aeroflot said it would continue to fly to Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Russia had been enjoying a rare and robust aviation recovery as the only global market where domestic air traffic last year exceeded that of 2019, according to the IATA, a global trade group. But the airline industry there has been hit hard in the last two weeks, as countries around the world have imposed flight bans and sanctions on Russia because of President Vladimir V. Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. Mr. Putin and President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus are allies, and Russian forces have attacked Ukraine from Belarus. Separately, Russia’s aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya, recommended on Saturday that Russian airlines with planes registered in foreign jurisdictions suspend all flights abroad from Sunday because of fears that they could be seized by foreign governments. The suspension effectively leaves a handful of Western companies with no way of recovering hundreds of planes leased to Russian carriers. Recent sanctions gave those leasing companies until March 28 to end their contracts with airlines in Russia. With dozens of Western countries and Russia having issued reciprocal flight bans, the only hope those companies had for recovering their planes would have been to have Russian airlines deliver them to a neutral country, experts said. Saturday’s ban appeared to dash those hopes.<br/>
