LONDON – According to a report from haber.aero, Turkey may not be able to serve airlines in Russia due to sanctions laid out by the United States.
Havas, a TAV Airports subsidiary, the country’s airport ground handling services provider, offered the warning about US & European-built aircraft in the air fleets of Russia.
This comes following a report from the Wall Street Journal that the U.S. State Department has told Turkey “not to become a safe haven for illegal Russian assets or transactions”.
Havas General Manager, Mete Arna, said the following on this:
“As a violation of the US Export Administration Regulations (EAR), if maintenance services are provided to aircraft destined for Russia and Belarus and equipped with more than 25 percent American technologies and the aircraft is operated by an airline, a violation of the US Department of Commerce issued.”
“It will mean perforating the temporary denial of service order (TDO).”
A Long List Communicated to Russia’s Airlines…
It is understood that Arna sent letters to the affected carriers about this action being taken out by Havas. It will affect the following carriers:
- Aeroflot
- AirBridgeCargo
- Azur Air
- I Fly
- Pegas Fl
- Pobeda
- Rossii
- S7
- UT Air
- Ural Airlines
- Red Wings
- Nordwind
- Yamal
This is all based on the temporary denial of service orders (TDOs) sent out by the U.S. Export Administration.
Havas has also been made aware that they will not be able to service aircraft from Belavia in Belarus, Mahan Air, and Iran Air, as well as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Gulfstream G650ER owned by Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich.
Further Pressure on Russia’s Airlines From Turkey…
It remains clear that the pressure is on Russia’s airlines, and with Turkey potentially not much of a viable market for them anymore, they are all running out of options.
Take the Aeroflot group as an example.
The Russian flag carrier Aeroflot and several other airlines continue to be impacted by flight restrictions to and from the Russian Federation, primarily to destinations in Europe and North America.
The airline had also recently published an increase in flight frequency to China with three-a-weeks services to Shanghai and Guangzhou, starting in mid-February 2023. It will also start a new route to Beijing Daxing three times a week.
With the easing of COVID-induced travel restrictions in China, Aeroflot has shifted its network to a new international opening to continue operations.
Russian and Chinese Governments have maintained amicable relations, and trade has recently increased. The Russia-China routes will be operated on Aeroflot’s Boeing 777 fleet.
Overall…
It remains clear that U.S. sanctions are hindering any plans that Russia’s carriers may have for future growth in a volatile environment.
With the country’s aircraft orders falling apart before they started, it remains clear that Russia may not be able to handle the 103 million passengers in 2023 that they predicted.
As mentioned last year by AviationSource, it remains clear that the Russian airline industry is definitely heading further into its nosedive.
