PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Russia's LCC Dobrolet closes...the first victim of sanctions?
Old 5th Aug 2014, 06:35
  #5 (permalink)  
andrasz
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Where it is comfortable...
Age: 60
Posts: 911
Received 13 Likes on 2 Posts
To put things into perspective:

Dobrolet was formed to operate flights into annexed Krimea, pretty much for the same reasons why Lufthansa used a Condor painted 744 to operate into Taipei, or why KLM created KLM Asia for the same purpose: to protect the main airline from potential sanctions (which were already anticipated months ago, nothing to do with MH17)

The reason for the suspension is because the Bermudan (and by implication UK) registered 738-s have been repossessed by the lessor due to Dobrolet being specificly targeted by the EU sanctions. I'm sure they will find a couple of Tu-204s as replacement, Krimea flights are primarily politically motivated, commercial realities will have little to do with it.
andrasz is offline