Russia did not give permission to the Austrian carrier Austrian Airlines to arrive in Moscow bypassing Belarus.
This was reported by TASS with reference to a representative of the airline.
So, according to the source, the airline stopped flying over the airspace of Belarus after the incident with the emergency landing of the Ryanair aircraft on the basis of the recommendation of the European Union Aviation Security Agency.
In this regard, the carrier had to adjust the routes for the flight to Russia.
“The change in the flight route must be approved by the authorities. The Russian authorities did not give us this permission”, – explained Austrian Airlines.
Earlier it was reported that the Austrian Airlines plane was supposed to arrive at Moscow Domodedovo Airport from Vienna at 13:45 Moscow time, but on the online scoreboard it was listed as canceled.
A similar situation happened with the Air France flight, which was scheduled for May 27. The plane was supposed to fly from Paris to Moscow, but the flight was first postponed and then canceled. As explained in the press service of the carrier, the flight did not take place, since Air France also did not receive permission to operate flights to Russia bypassing Belarus.
Recall that several countries imposed restrictions on flights over Belarus after the incident at the Minsk airport – on May 23, a Ryanair plane en route from Athens to Vilnius made an emergency landing in the capital of the republic after reports of mining. Immediately after landing, law enforcement officers detained the creator and former editor-in-chief of the NEXTA Telegram channel Roman Protasevich, who was on board. At home, he is accused of creating an extremist group and calling for riots after the presidential elections in August 2020. He could face up to 15 years in prison.