Since March 16, Turkey has stopped refueling and servicing more than two dozen Airbus and Boeing planes from Russian and Belarusian airlines. This decision was taken by the Turkish Ministry of Customs and Commerce after receiving a letter from the Bureau of Industry and Security of the United States Department of Commerce.
In particular, we are talking about cargo, commercial and charter aircraft, as well as ships with more than 25% of components manufactured in the United States and destined for Russia and Belarus. According to the document, the restriction applies to several aircraft from Aeroflot, S7 Airlines, Utair, AZUR Air, Pegas Fly, Rossiya, Yamal and Belavia.
According to the Turkish portal turizmguncel.com, as of the morning of March 16, the airliners indicated in the letter from the Office of Industrial Export Practices and Security of the United States Department of Commerce were no longer refueling at airports. turks.
As a result, Russian planes taking off from Turkey without refueling land in Sochi, where they refuel and continue their flight.
In addition, according to turizmguncel.com, planes flying the Turkish flag are prohibited from buying fuel from the Russian oil companies Gazprom and Lukoil, which are under sanctions.
Kommersant sources at two airlines confirmed reports about the refusal to refuel planes in Istanbul. One of the publication’s interlocutors said the carrier is “working on a solution to the problem.” Meanwhile, in the Aeroflot newspaper declared that the airline “operates flights to cities in Turkey in the normal mode, according to the schedule, within the declared flight schedule”.
Profi.Travel portal with reference to the opinion of an expert familiar with the situation, wrote that the measures taken will in no way affect flights to Turkey. The interlocutor estimates that all the carriers will replace “without problem” the planes which they ceased to serve in Istanbul by other ships of their fleet.
According to the Flightradar24.com portal, Aeroflot has already replaced its Boeing on flights to Turkey with Airbus 320s.
In late January, the Wall Street Journal reported that US authorities had asked Turkey to ban Russian airlines from flying to the country on US planes. Thus, Washington wanted to bring Ankara to comply with the anti-Russian sanctions regime.
As the newspaper writes, Turkey has been warned of the risks of imprisonment, fines, deprivation of export privileges and other measures against the country’s citizens if they continue to provide services to airlines. from Russia and Belarus using American-made aircraft. Deputy Commerce Secretary Thea Roseman Kendler issued a warning to Turkish officials during a visit to Turkey in December 2022, WSJ sources said.
The warning about the need to comply with sanctions came precisely to Turkey because of its membership in NATO and its status as a major tourist and transit hub, the newspaper notes. Istanbul Airport, the WSJ pointed out, is a key transit point for flights from Russia to countries that have stopped direct flights to it. The United States has expressed concern that Ankara is easing the effect of anti-Russian sanctions, seeking to deepen economic ties with Moscow and give Turkey the status of intermediary between Russia, Ukraine and the West.
