The first Russian airline began to fly around Belarus due to sanctions

The largest Russian air cargo group, Volga-Dnepr, no longer flies through Belarus due to sanctions and requirements from the British authorities.Passenger airlines of RUSSIA still operate flights through this country.

The largest Russian air cargo carrier, the private group Volga-Dnepr (owned by Alexei Isaikin, who holds the post of its president), refused to fly through Belarus, according to FlightRadar24 data. “We really decided not to temporarily use the airspace of Belarus for the flights of our aircraft,” a representative of the Volga-Dnepr group told RBC. He declined further comment.

This happened after the European Union, Great Britain and the United States imposed sanctions against Belarusian companies, including the air navigation services provider Belaeronavigatsia, as well as after the UK Civil Aviation Authority banned cooperation with this provider. Volga-Dnepr follows the instructions of the British aviation authorities, because it strictly complies with all international rules, a source close to the group told RBC. The HEAD office of the Volga-Dnepr Logistics BV group is registered in the Netherlands.

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Representatives of the Ministry of Transport and the Federal Air Transport Agency declined to comment, RBC sent a request to Belaeronavigatsia.

What British authorities have warned airlines

Last week, the United States and Great Britain, following the European Union, imposed sanctions against Belarus after the incident with the Irish airline Ryanair, which on May 23 was heading from Athens to Vilnius, but due to a report by Belarusian air traffic controllers about a bomb, it landed urgently in Minsk. Information about the mining was not confirmed, and while the liner was in Belarus, two passengers were removed from the flight - Roman Protasevich, co-founder of the opposition Nexta TELEGRAM channel, and his girlfriend Sofya Sapega, who were arrested.

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European countries banned their airlines from using Belarusian airspace almost immediately after the incident with the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk. So, regular flights to the Belarusian capital were canceled by the German Lufthansa, the Polish LOT and the Latvian airBaltic.

On June 21, the British Civil Aviation Authority sent a letter to international airlines, including Russian ones, which states that cooperation with Belaeronavigatsia is inadmissible. RBC has a copy of the letter, its authenticity was confirmed by sources in two Russian airlines.

According to the imposed sanctions, the assets of Belaeronavigatsia are frozen, it is forbidden to provide funds and economic resources, including payment of fees for escorting flights in the airspace of Belarus and landing at the airports of this country. “Any entity that pays such fees will directly or indirectly violate the sanctions provisions and commit a criminal offense,” the letter said. RBC sent a request to the UK Civil Aviation Authority.

How Volga-Dnepr planes fly now

According to the FlightRadar24 service, the aircraft of the Volga-Dnepr group (in addition to the carrier of the same name, it includes AirBridgeCargo and Atran airlines) stopped using the airspace of Belarus almost the day after receiving a letter from the UK Civil Aviation Authority. The group in 2020 accounted for 95% of the net profit of Russian cargo airlines.

Boeing 737-400 of Atran Airlines flew from Moscow to Nuremberg (Germany) via Belarus on June 21 (flight duration was 2 hours 47 minutes). But on June 22, for a flight between these cities, he already used the airspace of the Baltic countries, the flight duration increased by 16 minutes, up to 3 hours 3 minutes. On June 22, an Il-76 of the Volga-Dnepr airline made a flight from Brno (Czech Republic) to Moscow via Belarus, and on June 23, it also had to use the airspace of the Baltic countries to fly from Moscow to Zagreb (Croatia). Boeing 777 airlines AirBridgeCargo June 25 also made a flight from Zaragoza (Spain) to Moscow through the Baltic States, bypassing Belarus.

In addition to Russian cargo carriers, the Volga-Dnepr Group includes aircraft repair companies AMTES (Germany) and Volga-Dnepr Gulf (UAE). With the participation of Isaikin, the British cargo carrier CargoLogicAir and the German CargoLogic Germany were also created.

“The parent company of the Volga-Dnepr group is registered in the Netherlands, so the group is influenced by decisions taken by the authorities of the European Union and England,” says aviation lawyer Alexei Eltunov. Volga-Dnepr performs a significant amount of traffic outside of Russia, which could also affect the company's decision not to fly over the territory of Belarus, adds an associate professor at Moscow State Law University named after O.E. Kutafina, DIRECTOR of RKB PRAVO Anastasia Ragulina.

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How did passenger airlines react to the ban?

The largest passenger airlines in Russia are also aware of the ban on cooperation with Belaeronavigatsia from the UK Civil Aviation Authority, says a RBC source close to the Russian aviation authorities. But they continue to operate flights to Minsk and use the airspace of Belarus for transit flights, for example, to Kaliningrad.

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According to the interlocutor of RBC, the warning could primarily affect Aeroflot as the only Russian passenger airline flying to London and Minsk. But, according to FlightRadar24, for daily flights between Russia and England, the carrier continues to use the airspace of Belarus. A spokesman for Aeroflot declined to comment.

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The press service of Ural Airlines reported that the airline uses official sources during flights, for example, NOTAM (Notices to AirMan - a notice to flight crew; they are published by national aeronautical information services). But so far, none of the “huge amount” of NOTAMs has concerned Belaeronavigatsia. “For flights, we use cost-effective routes and airspaces that ensure safety and regularity of transportation, including the airspace of the Republic of Belarus,” said a representative of Ural Airlines. RBC sent requests to S7, Pobeda, Rossiya and Utair.

According to Aleksey Eltunov, Russian passenger companies are unlikely to follow Volga-Dnepr. “The letter [from the British aviation authorities] is still advisory in nature, and their business is predominantly controlled by Russian legal entities,” he notes.