EU Bans Turkish Airline Over Links with Russia

The European Union has closed its airspace to the Turkish airline Southwind Airlines because of suspected links to Russia, the Turkish tourism news site Turizm Guncel reported on Saturday. The decision was prompted by sanctions imposed by the EU on Russia before and after the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Germany’s Bild said Finnish authorities were the first to initiate an investigation into Southwind after it had proposed a new route between Antalya to Helsinki.

The Turkish-registered company was founded in April 2022, shortly after the war began. The investigation found that all three of its aircraft and a significant number of its employees were linked to the Nordwind Airline, which is owned by the Russian travel agency Pegas Touristik.

As well as flights to Finland, Southwind Airlines planned to open routes from Turkey to Berlin, Dusseldorf and other German cities. The EU ban closes all European airspace to the airline.

According to Turizm Guncel, Brussels introduced the measure under Regulation 833/2014, which covers EU sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine.

According to the Russian ATOR travel site, Southwind’s flights between Russia, Belarus and Turkey continue to operate but, based on data produced by the Flight Radar 24 service, all aircraft now have to fly in an easterly direction, and skirt around the Black Sea to avoid entering EU territory.

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This adds additional flying time and costs for its flights from Antalya to and from Ufa, Yekaterinburg and Minsk.

The extension of airspace restrictions on airlines that have ties to Russia strengthens the EU’s sanctions regime and presents an unequivocal stance against those entities that try to mask their links with and indirectly support Russia's war efforts. This further isolates Russian carriers which have seen their aircraft seized and maintenance services denied internationally since February 2022.