EU sanctions Belarussian flights & Russia hits back for its ally… Russia flight bans add to crisis in EU skies

• Dutch carrier KLM was allowed to fly around Belarus into Russia, but its sister airline, Air France was not (Photo: Kitty Terwolbeck)

By ANDREW RETTMAN BRUSSELS

Russia has banned some Austrian and French flights, amid disarray in European skies after the Belarus hijacking.

Austrian Airlines and Air France cancelled flights to Moscow on Wednesday and Thursday (27 May) when Russia denied them permission to divert around Belarus, in line with new EU sanctions.

Russia did so because “politicisation” of flight routes was “unacceptable and would be dangerous in terms of aviation safety”, Russia’s ambassador in Vienna, Dmitry Lyubinsky, said on Facebook.

The EU was wrong to have accused Belarus of “air piracy” before any investigation had taken place, he added.

“The speedy, fully-fledged normalisation of the air traffic regime between Russia and Austria is in our common interests,” he also said.

But that would be handled bilaterally and Russia would not bow to “political pressure,” he added.

Lyubinsky’s Facebook post was the only official Russian comment on its new air policy.

But Russia’s Belarus-diversion ban was selective because British Airways and Dutch carrier KLM were allowed to do it.

“It’s an attempt to split European unity by applying pressure to individual airlines,” an EU diplomat said…..More Here

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