Moscow - Russia may impose a ban on European air carriers using trans-Siberian routes to Asia in response to Europe's sanctions targeting the Russian low-cost airline Dobrolet, the Vedomosti newspaper reported on Tuesday, Aug. 5.
“Russian officials are considering the possibility of imposing
restrictions or even a ban on transit flights by European airlines to
Asia over the territory of Russia,” a source close to a Russian company
working with major European air carriers, a high-ranking Russian
official and a person close to these discussions told the newspaper.
One of these sources told Vedomosti that discussions on possible
restrictions for European airlines using trans-Siberian routes began
shortly after the first wave of the European Union’s sanctions against
Russia.
The latest events, including Dobrolet’s decision to ground its
flights and fines worth $8.6 million that have been imposed by Ukraine
on Russian air carriers operating flights to Crimea, require a response,
he said.
It is up to the Russian government to adopt such a decision, he said.
Consultations are currently under way at the level of the Transport
Ministry and the Foreign Ministry, he said.
A decision concerning this issue has not been adopted so far, a high-ranking Russian official told Vedomosti.
The Russian prime minister’s press secretary, Natalya Timakova, for
her part, told the newspaper that the government’s secretariat “had not
received such proposals from the agencies concerned.”
Russia’s Aeroflot gets the over-flight fees from European airlines
that use the trans-Siberian route, which is the shortest route to Asia,
Vedomosti reports.
A source close to the Aeroflot board of directors told the newspaper
that the Russian flagship carrier annually receives around $300 million
in these over-flight fees.
A source close to a Russian company that works with major European
air carriers told Vedomosti that the biggest payers of these over-flight
fees – Lufthansa, British Airways and Air France – are aware of the
problem and have already estimated that the possible Russian measures
may cost them more than 1 billion euros a year.
The newspaper, however, has been unable to confirm this information.
Meanwhile, a representative of the German Foreign Ministry told
Vedomosti that Lufthansa had not requested information concerning a
potential ban on trans-Siberian flights for European airlines either
through official or unofficial channels.
Spokespersons for Lufthansa, British Airways, European Commission
President Jose Mauel Barroso and EU Transport Commissioner Slim Kallas
have declined to offer their comments to Vedomosti. Representatives of
Air France and the French Foreign Ministry have refused to comment
either.
“We are speaking about good revenue. One needs to thoroughly weigh
the pros and cons in order to avoid acting like the Americans and
Europeans, who are effectively striking their own head with a hammer,”
the Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Interfax.
Peskov said he does not know whether or not the country’s ministries are discussing these measures.
The source close to the Aeroflot board of directors has added that
should European airlines be banned from using trans-Siberian routes,
Aeroflot will not be able to honor some of its other commitments, which
commercial airlines do not usually assume.
“I mean both Sukhoi Superjet operations, which cost more than $50
million a year, and all social projects such as the air carrier’s
unprofitable routes and the Avrora airline, which is an important state
project, but does not fit the business logic of an air carrier like
Aeroflot,” he said.
An Aeroflot spokesperson has been unavailable for comment.
