The European Commission has put 21 Russian airlines on its air safety blacklist. This is stated in the relevant statement of the EC, published on Monday.
The list of carriers included: Aeroflot, Rossiya, Pobeda, Aurora, S7 Airlines, Utair, Ural Airlines, Smartavia, Nordwind, Pegas Fly, IrAero, Yakutia, NordStar, Izhavia ”, Rusline, Yamal, Alrosa Airlines, UVT Aero, RusJet, Aviastur-Tu, SKOL. These companies are now officially banned from flying over EU member states.
According to the text of the message, Russian carriers raise serious concerns in Europe regarding the safety of aircraft operation. In particular, airlines forcibly entered foreign aircraft into the registry without valid airworthiness certificates.
According to Transport Commissioner Adina Valean, this is a clear violation of the Convention on International Civil Aviation and poses an immediate security threat. “The decision is not another sanction against Russia, it was taken solely for technical and security reasons. We do not mix security with politics,” the Commissioner concluded.