MOSCOW, February 16 (RIA Novosti) - Two state aviation regulators have suspended the charter and non-regular flights of several Russian air carriers to the European Union, the Transportation Ministry said Friday.
The ruling will affect Aero Rent, Tatarstan, Atlant-Soyuz, Aviacon Zitotrans, Centre Avia, Gazpromavia, LUKoil, Russian Sky and UTair air carriers.
"In order to prevent serious harm to the image of the Russian Federation as a leading global air power and to ensure flight safety, Rostransnadzor and Rosaviatsia issued a joint directive suspending the charter and non-regular flights of these air carriers to the European Union," the ministry said in a statement.
Inspections conducted by the European Commission in 2004-2006 of these carriers revealed numerous violations of air traffic and safety regulations that have yet to be corrected.
The ministry said all the companies had been informed of the results of the inspections, but failed to submit plans to state regulators on correcting the violations. The companies risk being placed on the so-called EU aviation safety "blacklist," established in 2005.
None of the cited Russian air carriers is currently on the EU list of airlines banned from operating within the European Community.
But Yury Mishukhin, head of the PR department at UTair, said the company had not received a single complaint notification, and that the situation was being dealt with. "We hope the misunderstanding will be resolved as soon as possible," he said.
An Aero Rent spokesperson denied the company's charter flights to the EU had been banned. "We are continuing flights to the European Union. It should be mentioned that we only offer business flights, VIP charter flights. They [Rostransnadzor and Rosaviatsia] have muddled together all airlines, both those providing all kinds of services and business flight companies," she said.
There is no such airline as LUKoil, but LUKoil-Avia, said a source in that company. "If that is what Rostransnadzor and Rosaviatsia meant, then we have indeed received complaints. But we have corrected all violations, which was confirmed at yesterday's meeting," he said, adding that a decision to resume flights would be made in the near future.
Aviacon Zitotrans and Centre Avia also said they had corrected all the violations that inspections revealed.
"We received a telegram on the flight ban last Friday, which is the result of the EU's political decision to squeeze Russian airlines out of the European market. For example, they can complain about a plane's untidy appearance," said Alexei Sakach, general director of Centre Avia.
