Kazakhstan’s national airline Astana and Turkey’s low-cost airline Pegasus announced Friday that they have temporarily suspended flights to Russia in the wake of sanctions imposed in Moscow over their “military operation” in Ukraine.
The two companies said in separate statements that the companies justified their decision by doubts about insurance coverage for planes bound for Russia.
Air Astana, which operates flights to a number of Russian destinations, said it wanted “to resume flights as soon as possible”.
Pegasus Airlines has specified that the suspension will be in effect from March 13 to 27. The Turkish airline also said the move was in response to “operational risks” due to European Union sanctions.
Because of these measures taken by Western countries, the insurance policies of airlines operating flights to Russia are no longer valid.
To continue to operate, financial guarantees from the state are needed, such as those provided by Israel to airlines flying to Russia.
The European Union, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom have all suspended flights to that country and closed their airspace to Russian aircraft.
Russia’s response was to prevent airlines from those countries from entering their airspace. There are still flights to and from Russia to several countries such as Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
