Kosachev believes that there are no conditions for the abolition of fees for flights of foreign airlines over Siberia

Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of Russia Konstantin Kosachev commented on the statement of the European Commission that Russia should stop charging European airlines for flights on the Trans-Siberian routes. In his opinion, there are no conditions for this, since Russia and the European Union mutually closed the airspace for their airlines.

“To begin with, at present there are no conditions even for discussing this issue, since the EU airspace is closed to Russian airlines due to sanctions, and the Russian space is closed, I emphasize, to EU airlines,” Konstantin Kosachev wrote in his Telegram channel.

Konstantin Kosachev also explained that European companies should pay not for the right to fly over the territory of Siberia, but for depreciation of aviation equipment. He recalled that such payments are established by “pool agreements”. The documents establish a fee for the use of aviation infrastructure by foreign carriers during the flight.

“In exchange, foreign air carriers shorten their route and save significant funds. A similar practice in one form or another exists in Canada, Brazil, China – geographically large countries,” Mr. Kosachev added. According to him, 15 Art. The Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation of 1944 on free overflight over the territory of the country, which was referred to in the EC, does not apply to “pool agreements”.

Today, January 16, the head of the transport directorate of the European Commission (EC) Henrik Hololei declaredthat in the event of the opening of Russian airspace, the country should stop collecting Trans-Siberian royalties.

After the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, the US and the EU closed the skies to Russian aircraft. The Federal Air Transport Agency has introduced similar restrictions for European and American airlines.

Olesya Pavlenko