REUTERS
Four Russian companies, including Aeroflot, Transaero, Rossiya Airlines and Siberia Airlines, which fell under the sanctions in accordance with the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, and in connection with the ban on flights to Ukraine from October 25, 2015, will lose 106 permits for regular weekly flights between Ukraine and Russia, the State Aviation Service of Ukraine told an UNIAN correspondent.
According to the report, the total number of permits that have been issued to Russian airlines, including UTair, which does not fall under sanctions (it has not flown to Crimea), amounted to 135 permits in summer navigation period of 2015.
According to the presented data, Aeroflot had a permit for 35 weekly flights on the route Moscow - Kyiv and 21 permits on the route Moscow - Odesa. Transaero had 19 permits for Moscow - Kyiv flights and nine permits for Moscow - Odesa flights. Siberia Airlines received 14 permits for flights Moscow - Kyiv, and one permit on the route Moscow - Odesa.
UTair had 21 permits for flights Moscow - Kyiv, seven permits for Moscow - Lviv, one for Surgut - Kyiv. Rossiya Airlines received permission for seven flights from Saint Petersburg to Kyiv.
At the same time, only three Ukrainian airlines had permits for regular flights to Russia - Ukraine International Airlines (UIA), Dniproavia and MotorSich.
UIA received 13 permits for flights Kyiv - Moscow, 13 permits for flights Kyiv - St. Petersburg, three for Kyiv - Kaliningrad, five permits on the route Odesa - Moscow, and three permits for Odesa - St. Petersburg.
At the same time, the Ministry of Transport did not specify the actual number of flights.
In addition, according to the service, in January-September 2015, a total of 339 Ukrainian charter flights and 885 foreign charter flights were carried out between Ukraine and Russia, of which only 11 flights were Russian, including four flights in the framework of the OSCE mission.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on September 25, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced that in keeping with National Security and Defense Council decisions, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers had decided to toughen anti-Russian sanctions by banning flights carried out by Russian airlines, namely Aeroflot and Transaero. Ukraine also banned transit flights of Russian airlines through Ukrainian airspace "if they carry defense goods, duel-purpose equipment, or Russian military personnel," the press service said quoting Yatsenyuk who announced this decision at a recent Cabinet meeting.
On September 28, the State Aviation Service of Ukraine sent a warning to the Russian airlines, which fell under sanctions in accordance with the decision of National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine, on a ban to fly into Ukraine from October 25, 2015.
The Russian Federation has responded to Ukraine's move to ban Russian airlines from Ukrainian airspace with retaliatory measures, barring from October 25 the Ukrainian airlines from flying into Russia.
Three Ukrainian airlines, including UIA, Dniproavia and YanAir, have already received warning on a ban to fly into Russia.