Belavia suspended flights to Crimeas Simferopol because of low passenger loads, Ihar Charhinets, deputy director general of the national airline, says.
According to Mr Charhinets, Belavia’s decision to suspend its flights to Simferopol was not influenced by the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol)’s ban on flights to Crimea`s Simferopol and Sevastopol. “We made this decision a little earlier, on Monday,” he said.
Although Minsk-Simferopol flights were popular in recent years, they are not popular this year, Mr Charhinets said.
“There are some bookings, but there are very few of them compared with the same period, for example, last year and the year before. Sales of tickets have decreased several times. About 100 people have booked one-way tickets. There were much more bookings in previous years.”
It was reported on April 2 that the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) had banned flights to Crimea`s Simferopol and Sevastopol.
“Eurocontrol is strictly following the ICAO Convention on International Civil Aviation and will not recognize any unilateral declaration of air navigation service provision over any part of Ukrainian airspace other than from the Ukrainian authority,” Eurocontrol says in its statement. As a spokesperson for Eurocontrol told Interfax, flights to Simferopol and Sevastopol were banned ‘until further notice.’
www.belsat.eu/en, following BelaPAN
