Russia's LCC Dobrolet closes...the first victim of sanctions?
 

Could this be the beginning of bad times incoming to the Russian Aviation World...?:sad:

Aeroflot subsidiary grounded by European sanctions - FT.com

Not good news for sure...

I hope it is just beginning. Airlines, that ignore NOTAMs should be grounded, at least for safety reasons.

Aeroflot says it is due to the sanctions, however very low loadfactors might have played a rather large part in it as well, rumours are only 20% of available tickets were payed for.

Dobrolet Grounded by Broadened EU Sanctions Against Russia :: Routesonline

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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, Aeroflot and other major airline Transaero have own flights to Crimea. no sanctions to them...

No, actually, it wasn't. It was/is Aeroflot's attempt at a low-cost carrier. See this report from October 2013.

I'm at a loss why all Russian route licenses are not suspended? Instant impact to Russia and I'm sure, the US, Euro, Japanese legacy carriers could use the surplus capacity profitably elsewhere. I'm obviously missing something here and would look forward to more informed comments.

One word explains why that won't happen.

Energy

huh, and what happens if Russia suspends its own airspace for western companies? Many flights would suddenly become twice longer...

That's exactly what a Russian newspaper is writing about:

ÂÅÄÎÌÎÑÒÈ - Ðîññèÿ ìîæåò çàïðåòèòü òðàíññèáèðñêèå ïåðåëåòû åâðîïåéñêèì àâèàêîìïàíèÿì

I stand corrected.... :O

I have seen reports that Russia is considering banning overflights over Russian airspace!

that would make lots of routes to Asia either unviable or unpalatable due to flight times

Sure and what do you think would happen then to Russian carriers 'overflying' Europe. :ugh:

I'm with chopper on this. Boeing and airbus can bring putin to heel more quickly than most other avenues if they were so instructed.

"Sure and what do you think would happen then to Russian carriers 'overflying' Europe."

they would just go around

Except those that land there :yuk:

While I don't think EU would forbid Russian aircraft to land on their territory - they would slap retaliatory 'landing fees' to make up for the 'Siberian detour'.

Putin does not give a crap about Boeing, Airbus or international aviation in general. Russia is descending into autarky and Putin is busy hurrying up the process. Do you know that, since April of this year, Russian police officers and other internal security employees are prohibited from traveling abroad? To those interested in beach vacations (previously, Turkey and Egypt were very popular), the official advice is "go to Crimea". Of course, there is no direct land connection between Crimea and mainland Russia, airports are at capacity, existing routes go through Ukraine, which is not cooperative for obvious reasons, there's a plan to build a bridge across Kerch Strait but it will take years and years. There is an automobile ferry across the strait but it's badly backed up, current wait times are on the order of 24 hours. Interesting times...

It is not true that government employees, including security and police officers are forbidden to leave the country.

They have only been given advice that it might he prudent not to as there have been several cases of agression towards Russian tourists abroad, especially in Turkey, by Europeans.

Russian tourists have been given advice to be careful in Turkey and the EU.

And the sanctions on the USA post Iranair 655 were.........?