The European Union has closed its airspace to Antalya-based Southwind Airlines. Interestingly, the consideration of Southwind’s application for flights to Finland led to this decision.
The CLOSURE of the EU skies for the Turkish airline immediately created difficulties for the return of Russian organized tourists from Egypt. Let’s look at why this happened. To do this, we need to rewind the story a couple of years ago, when Russian airlines were banned from flying over the territory of the EU. Then flights to Turkey also suffered – for domestic airlines, the flight became an hour longer compared to Turkish airlines, for which the skies of Europe are not closed. Every major Russian tour operator (TO) has affiliated charter airlines, while PEGAS Touristik is Nordwind, translated from English as “North Wind”. PEGAS Touristik itself was established in 1994 by a Turkish citizen.
Therefore, the news about the creation of the Turkish Southwind (“South Wind”) to carry out charter flights to Turkey in the interests of PEGAS Touristik did not cause much surprise in the market. And PEGAS Touristik did not hide much – identical names, similar logos. Again, Southwind received five of the eleven aircraft from Nordwind. However, in addition to Russia, Belarus and Israel, Southwind has been quietly flying to Germany and Switzerland until recently. And so, apparently, thinking that she had grabbed God by the beard, Turkish Southwind Airlines applied to the Finnish transport and Communications agency Traficom for flights between the countries. Having considered the application, Traficom not only did not satisfy it, but, it turns out, initiated the decision of Brussels to ban the entire EU sky for the Turkish airline.
Brussels could not help but react, because Traficom CEO Jarkko Saarimaki claims that Russian structures are behind Southwind Airlines, the airline not only does not belong to the Turks, but is not even controlled by them. According to AN-Tourism, the results of the Traficom “investigation” were strongly influenced by an article in the German tabloid Bild in December 2023. It claims that Southwind Airlines is a “fake” airline created by the Russian authorities to transport illegal migrants to Europe. The article in Bild was published on the day of the launch of the Southwind flight program from Istanbul to Minsk. Recall that the Finnish-Russian land border was walled up by the decision of the Finnish authorities because of the same illegal migrants.
Southwind’s problems, as we wrote above, immediately created difficulties for the return of Russian organized tourists from Egypt. The fact is that they had to fly from Sharm el Sheikh to Moscow by the Egyptian charter airline Air Cairo on a Boeing 777 leased from Southwind Airlines. As a result, the tourists were taken out with a delay of 11 hours, the flight took place over the Black Sea, Georgia, the Caspian Sea and Kazakhstan, that is, bypassing the territory of the EU. In addition, Southwind flight programs from Antalya to Kaliningrad and from Minsk to Istanbul have been completely canceled.
Death in Bangkok
On March 26, the Airbus A330 was preparing to take off on flight SU815 (Aeroflot) from Bangkok to Krasnoyarsk. After the start of taxiing, the commander decided to return to the parking lot due to a malfunction of the aircraft. However, the passengers were not returned to the terminal, but were kept on the plane for at least a couple more hours – according to Aeroflot, they spent a total of four hours on the plane. The doors are closed, the cabin is stuffy (outside it is 30 degrees Celsius) and there is not enough oxygen – witnesses claim that ventilation did not work, Aeroflot – that the air conditioning system was working and soft drinks were distributed to passengers.
Several people felt unwell. Witnesses claim that four passengers were hospitalized by ambulance, Aeroflot – that only one passenger needed hospitalization, whose heart stopped (two more independently went to the airport medical center, the national carrier says). He underwent several operations in a Thai hospital, but the red-haired man fell into a coma and died three days later. His wife was billed for 3 million rubles for operations and another 760 thousand for each day in the intensive care unit. The media reported that the insurance company stated that this incident on board Aeroflot was not an insured event.
However, the Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case under Part 1 of Article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (provision of services that do not meet security requirements), and the chairman of the TFR, Alexander Bastrykin, took this case under personal control. On March 29, Aeroflot announced that it was “settling the issue of paying for medical expenses of a passenger hospitalized due to deterioration of health during the delay of flight SU815 Bangkok – Krasnoyarsk dated March 26, 2024.”
The insurance company also confirmed that the case is insured, but “the costs have not yet been charged by the hospital. Upon receipt of invoices and a set of documents from the hospital, a decision will be made on coverage within the insurance amount under the contract amounting to 50 thousand dollars” – the press service of the insurer reported.
Airport News
Gorno-Altaisk is deciding whether flights abroad are needed: the airport has ordered a study on the feasibility of launching international flights and opening a checkpoint across the border of the Russian Federation. The construction of a new airport with a capacity of 1.2 million passengers per year was announced in July 2023. It is planned to start the construction of the airport and the reconstruction of the infrastructure in 2025, and to finish it in 2027. International flights from Gorno-Altaisk have never been operated. Currently, 9 airlines fly to the airport, operating flights to 11 destinations.
The new terminal of the Mineralnye Vody airport is planned to be put into operation in 2025. Construction of the terminal began in 2023. Upon completion of the work, its area will be 28 thousand square meters. meters. The terminal’s capacity is 1 thousand passengers per hour, and the total annual volume will reach 3.8 million passengers.
A new airport terminal is planned to open in Voronezh at the end of May 2024. Despite the closure of airspace in the region, construction continued, and now the readiness of the new terminal is about 87%. Finishing is underway at the facility, and the authorities plan to hold an official opening ceremony on May 23. We are talking only about the commissioning of a new terminal, there are no plans to open the sky in Voronezh yet. The area of the new terminal is more than 13 thousand square meters. meters. It will become one of the largest in the Central Federal District and, after lifting restrictions, will be able to serve up to 2 million passengers per year.
The first trial flight to the renovated Sukhum airport in Abkhazia is expected this year, tentatively it will happen in the middle of summer, and the airport is scheduled to open on December 31 this year.
The International Association of Airports (IAA), the PCT and the All-Russian Association of Passengers ask not to prohibit those who meet and see off from entering airports. As you know, amendments to the government decree on transport security will come into force on September 1: at the third level of security (already in effect at the airports of Moscow and St. Petersburg for more than a year), persons without travel documents will not be able to enter the airport territory.
Visa News
On March 31, Bulgaria and Romania officially joined the Schengen area, but with restrictions, since border controls remain on land borders with other EU countries, as Austria, fearing an influx of illegal migrants, vetoed the abolition of land controls.
As for the issue of issuing Schengen visas by the consulates of these states, there has been no clarity over the past two weeks. Romania has announced that it will begin issuing Schengen to Russian citizens from … March 31 (Sunday) and the application can be submitted at all three consulates (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don) on the territory of Russia. Nevertheless, the consulate in Rostov-on-Don is closed in accordance with the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 3540-r dated December 9, 2023.
The Bulgarian Embassy referred to technical circumstances and postponed the start of accepting applications for Schengen visas to Tuesday, April 2. So the details on the new Schengen countries will not be available until the next issue.
Sakura blossomed later
Tourists who came to Tokyo on the weekend of March 23-24 to enjoy the cherry blossom saw bare trees. The fact is that meteorologists in Japan made a little mistake with the forecast of cherry blossoms due to frosts.
The forecast was updated, they began to wait for the beginning of cherry blossoms in Tokyo on March 27, but again they missed by two days. Only on March 29, more than five flowers bloomed on the “reference sakura” at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo’s Chiyoda district.
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Источник: argumenti.ru
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