A database of the Russian airlines that have flown to the occupied Crimea in January, 2017

Olha KORBUT
The Maidan of Foreign Affairs Crimea Department

Translated by Tetyana PUCHKOVA

The BSNews and Maidan of Foreign Affairs monitoring group has summed up the illegal flights of the Russian airlines to the occupied Crimea in January 2017.

Airbus A320-214. Ural Airlines’ aircraft VP-BTZ. Photo: planefinder

In January 2017, the total 11 Russian airlines flew to the airport of the occupied Crimea. It is the same number of carriers as a year ago, while in early 2015, 14 Russian airlines flew to the Simferopol airport.

Some of the airlines that used to fly to the occupied Crimea before 2016, have since stopped operations due to financial problems and since January 2017, were replaced in Simferopol by other Russian carriers.

The number of flights to and from the Simferopol airport changed from 1500 flights in January 2015 to 1930 in 2016 and 1496 flights in 2017, respectively.

The Number of Flights to the Occupied Crimea
(January 2015-January 2017)

Among the airlines that continue to carry out illegal flights to the occupied Crimea as of January 2017 are:

• Aeroflot
• Russia
• Ural Airlines
• Globus
• VIM-Avia
• UVT
• Red Wings
• Nordwind Airlines
• Ikar (Pegas)
• Yamal
• Orenburzhye

The majority of these aircraft are manufactures by Airbus [1] and Boeing [2]. These companies also continue to provide the maintenance of the aircrafts that in turn, fly to the airports of the European and other countries that have officially recognized the annexation of Crimea by Russia.

[1] Airbus is one of the largest aircraft building companies, headquartered in Toulouse, France, that produces passenger, freight and military transport aircrafts. The production is concentrated in France, Germany, Spain and the UK.

[2] Boeing is one of the two largest aircraft manufacturers in the world, headquartered in Chicago, USA, that produces passenger, freight and military transport aircrafts, as well as space technology.

The aircrafts that carried out flights to the occupied peninsula have also flown to the airports of the EU and non-EU states that had recognized the illegal annexation of Crimea. The list is shown below in Table 1.

Russian Aircrafts That Have Carried Out and Continue to Carry Out Flights to the Occupied Crimea, While Also Flying to the European Airports

Table 1

Note:

In December 2014 the administration of the US President Barack Obama has adopted a number of decisions regarding the sanctions for any action in the occupied Crimea.

In April of the same year, in accordance with the ICAO Convention on International Civil Aviation, the Eurocontrol (the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation), banned the European airlines from flying to the Russia-occupied Crimea and Sevastopol. [1].

Ukraine officially accused [2] Russia of violation of the international multilateral and bilateral agreements and the provisions of the European Air Navigation Plan, as well as in ignoring the established borders of the Flight Information Regions (FIR) [3].

The Air Navigation Services in the sky over the Crimean Peninsula belong to the jurisdiction to Ukraine that due to the Russian annexation of the Crimean AR had to move the dispatch center from Simferopol to Kyiv and Odessa.

However, due to the inability of the State Avia Service to guarantee security of the Ukraine flights over the occupied territories, in March 2014, it was decided to close the airports in Simferopol and Belbek and the lower airspace and to restrict traffic in Simferopol flight information region.

At the same time, Ukraine continues to service the Black Sea FIR within its competence.

In April 2014, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) called Russia's actions to seize control of the airspace above Crimea and the Black Sea waters that belong to the Ukrainian FIR, illegal [4].

[1] The ban of the flights to the occupied Crimea for European airlines: http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/198796.html

[2] Announcement of the SE "UkrAeroRukh" of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine: http://uksatse.ua/index.php?act=Part&CODE=247&id=264

[3] The FIR (Flight Information Region) is a specified region of airspace in which a flight information service and an alerting service are provided

[4] The publication in the online edition of the Tyzhden magazine from 16.04.2014 http://tyzhden.ua/News/107719

For two and a half years, the BSNews and Maidan of Foreign Affairs monitoring group conducts daily monitoring of the illegal flights to the occupied Crimea followed by the media publications of the results of the investigation on the airlines-offenders.

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For the last two and a half years, the BSNews and Maidan of Foreign Affairs monitoring group has been conducting daily monitoring of the illegal flights to the occupied Crimea with further publications in the media on the airlines offenders.

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The investigation is conducted within the project The International Sanctions Over the Annexation of Crimea: Efficiency and Effect, Adherence and Circumvention Techniques, made possible by the support of the Media Development Fund of the US Embassy in Ukraine. The opinions of the authors do not necessarily coincide with the official position of the US government.

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The monitoring of the violations of the international sanctions against Russia and the legal regime of the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea is supported by the European Program Initiative of the Renaissance International Foundation. The position of Renaissance International Foundation may not reflect the opinion of the authors.