A Database of the Russian Airlines that Flew to the Occupied Crimea in October 2017
Olha KORBUT
The Maidan of Foreign Affairs Crimea Department
Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies
Translated by Tetyana PUCHKOVA
The Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies, BSNews and Maidan of Foreign Affairs monitoring group has summarized the Russian airlines’ illegal flights to the occupied Crimea in October 2017.
A model of the Russian MC-21 narrow-body aircraft. Photo by Marina Listseva, TASS
The past month has traditionally marked the end of the holiday season in the occupied peninsula, so the frequency of the daily flights to and from the Simferopol airport has skyrocketed. However, that has been the tendency over the past two years. Will the construction of the new airport terminal indeed help achieve the record passenger traffic of 2015 if the existing one is forced to operate below its capacity?
In October 2017, 2226 flights were made to and from the Simferopol airport, while the previous year’s number for the same period was 2624. The overall highest number of flights to and from the occupied Crimea for October was 2890 in 2015. In October 2014, the number of flights amounted to 2110.
The comparative chart below shows significant changes in the frequency of air traffic during the same period throughout the occupation. Along with the peak of 2015, the two subsequent years, 2016 and 2017, show a clear deflation in daily flights both ways. Moscow and St. Petersburg remain the most popular departure points, while the rest of the connections were made between Simferopol, Rostov, Sochi, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Tyumen – generally, one flight a day or less.
The Passenger Flight Dynamics to and from
the Simferopol Airport for October (2014-2017)
/Новый_рисунок.JPG)
In October, two Russian airlines, Red Wings and NordAvia that had been carrying out mostly joint flights to the occupied Simferopol airport, announced a merger to create an aviation holding. The Red Wings carrier fleet consists of six Airbus and four Tu-204-100 aircraft, with additional ten Tu-204SM and sixteen MS-21-300 expected.
The NordAvia Park consists of nine narrow-body Boeing 737-500s.
|
Red Wings |
ІАТА WZ Hubs: Pulkovo Airport (Saint Petersburg), Domodedovo Airport (Moscow), Simferopol Airport, Sochi Airport Destinations: Austria, Montenegro, Finland, Egypt, Balkans, Mediterranean Basin |
|
NordAvia |
IATA 5N |
Overall, passenger air travel to the occupied Crimea has been provided by 12 Russian airlines:
|
Aeroflot |
ІАТА SU Destinations: US, EU, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Asia, Baltics, UK, Middle East, the CIS countries |
|
Rossiya |
ІАТА FV Destinations: Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, UK, Italy, France, Czech Republic, Тurkey, Bulgaria, Egypt, Іzrael, the CIS countries |
|
Ural Airlines |
ІАТА U6 Destinations: Кazakhstan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Spain, Kyrgyzstan, Bulgaria, UAE, Тajikistan, Armenia, Greece, Italy, Czech Republic, China, Finland, Іsrael, Georgia |
|
Globus |
ІАТА GH Destinations: Domestic |
|
S7 Airlines* |
ІАТА S7 Destinations: International |
|
Red Wings |
ІАТА WZ Destinations: Austria, Montenegro, Finland, Balkan, Egypt and Mediterranean countries |
|
NordAvia |
IATA 5N Destinations: domestic |
|
Nordwind Airlines |
ІАТА N4 Destinations: Charter flights to Jordan, Thailand, Cuba, Vietnam, Mexico, Tunisia, Dominical Republic, Israel |
|
Ikar(Pegas) |
ІАТА IK Destinations: Charter flights to Turkey, Spain, Тhailand, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Vietnam |
|
Yamal |
IATA YC Destinations: Turkey, Armenia, Greece, Montenegro, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Sweden |
|
Yakutia |
IATA R3 Destinations: domestic, China, South Korea and Czech Republic |
|
UVT |
ІАТА UW Destinations: domestic |
* * *
The Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies, BSNews and Maidan of Foreign Affairs monitoring group also regularly monitors the subsequent movement of aircrafts that illegally fly to the occupied Crimea. We can confirm that a number of them also provide passenger traffic to the European countries that have condemned the Russian annexation of Crimea. The database of those aircrafts is being continuously updated and expanded. Previous monitoring results can be found in the Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies, BSNews and the Maidan of Foreign Affairs monthly air traffic reviews.
The table below details the European flights by the Russian airlines that regularly fly to the Simferopol airport:
|
VQ-BCG |
Airbus |
SU6897 |
Aeroflot / Rossiya |
SIP-LED |
LED-Rome(Italy) |
|
VP-BFA |
Airbus |
SU1629 |
Aeroflot / Rossiya |
SIP-SVO |
Moscow-Budapest(Hungary) |
|
VP-BDG |
Boeing |
S7/GH162 |
S7 Airlines / Globus |
SIP-DME |
Moscow-Larnaca(Cyrpus) |
|
VP-BON |
Boeing |
SU1635 |
Aeroflot / Rossiya |
SIP-SVO |
Moscow-Antalya(Turkey) |
|
VP-BBG |
Airbus |
U636 |
Ural Airlines |
SIP-DME |
Moscow-Kutaisi(Georgia) |
|
VQ-BRP |
Boeing |
S7/GH162 |
S7 Airlines / Globus |
SIP-DME |
Dusseldorf(Germany)-Moscow |
|
VP-BWG |
Airbus |
SU6894 |
Aeroflot / Rossiya |
SIP-LED |
LED-Larnaca(Cyprus) |
|
VP-BEO |
Airbus |
SU1633 |
Aeroflot / Rossiya |
SIP-SVO |
Moscow-Valencia(Spain) Moscow-Warsaw(Poland) |
|
VP-BIU |
Airbus |
SU/FV6892 |
Aeroflot / Rossiya |
SIP-LED |
Larnaca(Cyrpus)-LED |
|
VQ-BRE |
Airbus |
U6528 |
Ural Airlines |
SIP-SVX |
Barcelona(Spain)-LED |
|
VP-BWI |
Airbus |
SU/FV898 |
Aeroflot / Rossiya |
SIP-LED |
Rome(Italy)-LED |
|
VQ-BOD |
Airbus |
N4108 |
Nordwind Airlines |
SIP-UFA |
Kazan-Antalya(Turkey) |
|
VP-BWZ |
Airbus |
WZ786 |
Red Wings |
SIP-LED |
Moscow-Antalya(Turkey) |
|
VQ-BDJ |
Airbus |
U62932 |
Ural Airlines |
SIP-SVX |
Rimini(Italy)-Moscow |
|
VQ-BKJ |
Airbus |
U62832 |
Ural Airlines |
SIP-DME |
Moscow-Tbilisi(Georgia) |
|
VQ-BSL |
Airbus |
SU1637 |
Aeroflot / Rossiya |
SIP-SVO |
Berlin(Germany)-Moscow |
|
VQ-BSG |
Airbus |
SU1625 |
Aeroflot / Rossiya |
SIP-SVO |
Moscow-Istanbul(Turkey) |
|
VQ-BGJ |
Airbus |
U62792 |
Ural Airlines |
SIP-DME |
Yekaterinburg-Paris(France) |
|
RA89056 |
Sukhoi Superjet |
SU2801 |
Aeroflot |
SIP-AER |
Riga(Latvia)-Moscow |
|
VP-BWX |
Airbus |
WZ784 |
Red Wings |
SIP-LED |
Moscow-Antalya(Turkey) |
|
VP-BYW |
Boeing |
N4124 |
Nordwind Airlines |
SIP-SVO |
Kazan-Antalya(Turkey) |
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.
* * *
For the last two and a half years, the Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies, 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.
* * *
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.
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