While multiple Russian airlines have been banned form operating in the 27-nation bloc as a consequence of sanctions relating to the conflict in Ukraine, the EU commission has added 21 Russian carriers to a list of those banned from operating in the bloc as they no longer meet international safety standards.
“The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency has allowed Russian airlines to operate hundreds of foreign-owned aircraft without a valid certificate of airworthiness,” Commissioner for Transport Adina Valean said, adding that “The Russian airlines concerned have knowingly done so in breach of relevant international safety standards. This poses an immediate safety threat.”
However, Valean made it abundantly clear that the decision to ban the airlines, including Aeroflot, was not a sanction-based decision and instead was an action based purely on the basis of technical and safety grounds. The Commission confirmed that with the addition of these 21 Russian airlines, the EU blacklist of carriers banned from EU skies now included 117 companies.
