Forbes: Russian Airlines Started Flying Around Belarus

Routes are changed with the consent of the Russian authorities.

Russian airlines already on Thursday, May 27, made about ten flights to fly around Belarus, a source in one of the relevant departments told Forbes. “About ten flights were bypassing Belarus. But it is impossible to say the reasons for the route changes, whether it is connected with political motives. There may be technical reasons as well,” the source said.

The Forbes interlocutor did not specify the names of the companies and directions. According to him, the companies had asked the aviation authorities in advance for the opportunity to fly around Belarus. A Forbes source in one of the largest airlines confirmed that several flights were made the day before, bypassing Belarus.

On Monday, the flight from Moscow to Kaliningrad, having flown around Belarus, was operated by Utair. Then the carrier explained this decision as "fuel efficiency." “There were no notifications limiting flights over Belarus. Planning of air routes is based on the fuel efficiency of the flight, so, on May 24, we flew to Kaliningrad without crossing the airspace of Belarus but returned through it,” the company representative said.

Aeroflot on Thursday had to cancel a flight from Moscow to Vilnius because Lithuania has banned the arrival and departure of flights, the route of which passes over Belarus. According to a Forbes source in one of the largest airlines, Aeroflot tried to organize a route bypassing Belarus but did not receive permission from the Russian aviation authorities. A source in the relevant department, in a conversation with Forbes, admitted that the company could also fail to get permission for a flight to Vilnius "for technical reasons."

Forbes sent requests for comment to the Federal Air Transport Agency, as well as to the five largest airlines: Aeroflot, S7, Pobeda, Utair, and Ural Airlines.

Earlier this week, the leaders of the EU countries called on European airlines not to use the airspace of Belarus. Several airlines, including Latvian airBaltic, German Lufthansa and Dutch KLM, French Air France and Finnair, Hungarian Wizz Air, Scandinavian SAS, and Polish LOT, have canceled flights over Belarus.

The decision of the EU leaders was a response to an emergency landing in Minsk of a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius on 23 May. The aircraft flying over Belarus was deployed near the border with Lithuania and landed in Minsk, accompanied by a fighter jet by Lukashenka's personal decree. Minsk explained the landing with a message about the "mining" of the board, which was not confirmed in the end. Ryanair considered the incident "a case of state-sponsored hijacking."

The former editor-in-chief of the Belarusian opposition Telegram channel Nexta Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend, Russian woman Sofia Sapega, flew to Vilnius on the Ryanair plane. After the plane landed, they were detained by the Belarusian security forces. The European Council demanded the release of Pratasevich and Sapega.