After the war in Ukraine, the European Union banned all Russian air carriers from flying in EU airspace.
Yevgeny Bogdanov,
Helena Korpela
Several Russian planes flew in Finnish airspace yesterday and today.
The map of the website Flightradar24, which tracks flights in real time, showed that the Ural Airlines Airbus A321neo flying from Kaliningrad to Moscow was flying in Finnish airspace over southern Finland at night. Other flights between mainland Russia and Kaliningrad have also been observed in the southern Finland region.
Fintraffic, which is responsible for Finnish airspace reservation issues, confirmed that a few Russian planes have been forced to avoid a thundercloud through Finnish airspace during the last 24 hours.
– The sanctioned flights heading into Finnish airspace have been caused by a thunderstorm, which has forced them to change their pre-planned flight route, said Fintraffic’s responsibility and communications manager Leena Huhtamaa.
According to him, Russian and Belarusian civil aircraft are allowed to use Finnish airspace only in emergency situations. Avoiding a dangerous weather phenomenon counts as such a situation according to Fintraffic.
The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency Rosaviatsia as well told, that three Russian planes flying over neutral waters crossed the border of Finnish and Estonian airspace due to bad weather. According to the Russian authorities, these are the flights of Rossija, Ural Airlines and Nordwind.
After the war in Ukraine, the European Union banned all Russian air carriers from entering EU airports and flying in EU airspace, including Finland. Financial life news in July, that due to a loophole in the legislation, Russian airlines fly up to a hundred flights a day between mainland Russia and Kaliningrad, using international airspace over the Baltic Sea.