Crimea: Closed sky

How Russian airlines react to the ban on flights over the peninsula

The European Air Navigation Safety Organization (Euro Control) announced flights to the peninsula "unsafe"

Simferopol airport. Now only Russian airlines fly here

“Do not worry, we have no complaints from passengers who fly to Crimea. Everything is safe, only 35 minutes will have to fly longer so as not to violate the airspace of Ukraine, ”so the Aeroflot hotline operators answer in recent days to the questions of worried customers: is it possible to calmly fly to the Crimea after the Ukrainian-Russian grinding that turned out to be the joining of the peninsula to Russia? Are all disputes settled?

Operators are cunning: no one will hurt to calmly fly. Yes, only not everything is settled.

The fact of non -recognition

On March 31, the European Air Navigation Safety Organization (Euro control) issued an application with a refusal to recognize the transition of the airspace of Crimea to Russian jurisdiction until the international legal status of the peninsula is settled. At the same time, the Euro -controlle refused to recognize the competence of the Crimeaeronavigation enterprise, where local dispatchers from the Utvavivoziliya enterprise transferred to work on independence on March 16. For airlines of the countries of the Euro Control (and this is 40 countries of the Old World), this is equivalent to a ban on direct or transit flights to the Crimea. In order to avoid entering the closed zones, Euro control invited them to "coordinate navigation routes with the centers of the air traffic in Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey."

“Eurocontrol, acting in accordance with the ICAO Convention (ICAO-the International Civil Aviation Organization.-The New Times) for International Civil Aviation, does not recognize unilateral statements regarding the implementation of air navigation services in any sector of Ukraine, except for the statements of the Ukrainian authorities,” the statement of Euro control, the text of which is published on FlightWorx Aviation industry website.

By the way, the Ukrainian authorities closed Crimea for the flights of civilian vessels on March 27, having released NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) on that day - a notice of changes in the rules for conducting and ensuring flights and aeronautical information. Simferopol Airport is announced in a notice "closed for technical reasons to subsequent notifications."

However, after the Demarsh of Kyiv, according to ITAR -TASS, the internal order was dispersed for a number of Russian airlines: if during the flight to the Crimea from the dispatch services of Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine), serving the route, information on the closure of the airfield in Simferopol is received, the possibility of receiving the possibility of receiving should be accepted directly at the Crimean dispatchers. By that time, in the Federal Air Transport Agency, according to ITAR -TASS, documentation has already been prepared, notifying the ICAO on a change in the state affiliation of the Simferopol Airport and the airspace of Crimea.

"

"Everything is safe, only you will have to fly longer for 35 minutes so as not to violate the airspace of Ukraine"

"

On April 4, the air traffic control in the sky over the Crimea formally, that is, according to documents, passed to the Simferopol Center for flight management (stsup), which the Russian state corporation for the organization of air traffic (the ORVD) immediately reported. (It is clear that in reality the Simferopol Central Department Store did not stop working throughout the territory of Crimea and part of the Black Sea.)

The ODVD insists that no ICAO instructions are violated during the retrofitting. But the Euro controllays justifies its ban on flights over the Crimea by ICAO directives, namely the ICAO Convention on International Civil Aviation, according to which control over the functions of aeronautical services to the part of the country is the prerogative of the legitimate power of this country. And such a power in the representation of European officials is Kyiv.

In the sphere of powers of ICAO, awarding the airport of international status or its review is included. The organization, for example, does not recognize the Sukhum airport in Abkhazia as international - based on the principle of the territorial integrity of Georgia. Sukhumsky airport - formally and in fact - is still in the international blockade and is almost not used for civil aviation needs.

A similar story is with an unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Direct flights are carried out by small private Turkish airlines operating only this route. The maximum that the rest of the carriers can count on is a short -term technical intermediate landing without passengers from the liner cabin.

In ICAO itself, about plans for Crimea, they have not yet been distributed. In a short commentary for The New Times, the deputy director of the air navigation department, ICAO Anthony Filbin, only assured that the organization "will soon release the application."

Russian airlines will not fall under sanctions, landing in Crimea

Not a decree

What, then, do air carriers to do? “Euro control has no authority to cancel the planned flights of airlines,” The New Times explained to the Brussels headquarters of the organization. “We have issued this statement to warn about the insecurity of flights to Simferopol.” But the ban on flights of airlines can be announced only by the “competent power structure”, said in Euro control. And they made it clear that sanctions against Russian airlines due to flights to Crimea will not follow.

The fact that Aeroflot sanctions and other Russian airlines that have increased the number of flights to Crimea in recent days (Aeroflot brought them to four per day) do not threaten them, and experts in the field of transport law are also confirmed by the magazine.

A member of the Russian Association of International Law, Alexander Travnikov, in a conversation with the magazine, emphasized: sanctions against Russia for transporting passengers to Crimea are “legally insignificant and can only be determined by political decisions”.

In turn, the rector of the Moscow State Technical University of Civil Aviation, ICAO expert Boris Eliseev also noted that the Directive of Euro Control "is purely advisory in nature."

In Russia, all airline decisions are regulated by the Federal Air Transport Agency together with the Ministry of Transport. “The Russian Federation is a member of the ICAO and is obliged to comply with the rules of the association, but so far we have not received any directives from ICAO in connection with the statement of the Euro -control,” Timur Hikmatov, head of the public relations department of the Ministry of Transport, told The New Times. He also recalled that Russia is a member of the IKAO, but unlike the same Ukraine, not a member of the Euro Control.

Although the Euro control does not have prohibitive powers, the airlines are required to take into account its recommendations in practice

"

However, not everything is so unambiguously simple. Although the Euro -Control does not have prohibitive powers, the airlines of the countries - members of the organization are required to take into account its recommendations in practice - this is the unspoken rule. Moreover, the initiatives of the organization often reflect in the national legislation of these countries. So today in Simferopol you can “legally” fly only a flight from the Russian city and only Russian airline.

But so far everything was different. “Previously, approximately 700 international flights per day passed through the Simferopol airport,” the Euro control said. By the way, in the spring-summer schedule for 2014, Turkish air carriers Turkish Airlines and Atlas Jet, as well as the Latvian Air Baltic and the Austrian Austrian Airlines, were first planned for flights to Crimea.

Meanwhile, Turkish Airlines has proved that it is not necessary to wait for direct prohibitions if you value a reputation: the airline refused flights to the Crimea even before the statement of Euro control-due to the overall unsuccessful situation around the peninsula. (To which, however, the official Ankara constantly pays attention.) Reputational costs were important for the Turks.

But domestic carriers seem to not care: we flew and will fly. Both to Crimea and Europe.

More flights!

In the representative offices of Russian airlines, the Euro Control statement about the insecurity of flights on the peninsula for some reason refuses to comment on the peninsula. “We do not comment on the statements of such structures for reasons of our domestic information policy,” Irina Kolesnikova, head of the S7 Group press service, told the journal. Now her airline is performed by one daily flight Moscow - Simferopol. Since June 2014, there will be two of them, in addition, a direct flight Novosibirsk - Simferopol will also appear. However, the “increase in frequencies” was planned in the summer schedule for a long time, the airline emphasized.

The yutir airline also announced the increase in the number of flights to Crimea, which had not at all flying on the peninsula in the autumn-winter season at all. “The flights of Moscow-Simferopol will start on April 26, and tickets are already sold,” Elena Galanova, spokeswoman for the company, cheerfully told the magazine. Also, according to her, from the end of May, the flights of St. Petersburg-Simferopol will begin.

The refusal to fly to Crimea is hypothetically fraught with air carriers to get into the return black list

"

Certain difficulties in connection with the situation around the Crimea were recognized only in the VIM-Avia airline. But “thanks to the measures taken, they do not have a negative impact on the level of flight safety,” the magazine was assured by the head of the VIM-Avia Department for Public Relations Elena Fedorova. She clarified that VIM-Avia, like other Russian airlines, will fly to Crimea in the summer.

A number of experts surveyed by the journal still suggested that Russia could in response to the Euro -control demarche to introduce retaliatory, “much more painful” sanctions against European air carriers. “From England to Japan or from Canada to India, you can fly directly through the territory of Russia, along the so -called arc of a large circle, and not around the equator,” explains the veteran of the air fleet and the former Commander -in -Chief of the Air Force Peter Deinekin. “Such a route gives great benefits to airlines using Russian airspace.” The refusal to fly to the Crimea is hypothetically fraught with getting into the return black list, Dineekin believes.

But Aeroflot’s 1st class pilot Andrei Litvinov sees in the Euro Control statement “an unsuccessful attempt to make a policy”: “Aviation executes flights on the basis of bilateral agreements. To carry out air transportation, it is necessary to recognize Crimea either by Russian or Ukrainian and after that enter into bilateral relations. Euro control made neither one nor the other with his statement. ” For countries - members of the organization, this serves as a reason not to make any decisions at all and leave the situation in limbo, the pilot believes. As a result, only passengers will suffer.

Photo: Gennady Gulyaev/Kommersant, press service of the Simferopol airport