The main thing is maneuvers – Newspaper Kommersant No. 47 (7492) of 03/21/2023

The second precedent in half a year for a Turkish airport ground handling operator to refuse to deal with Russian aircraft under US sanctions appears to have ended in the same way as the first: nothing so far.

At the end of 2022, the aviation industry discussed a letter from the Havas provider, which warned that 170 Boeings from the US Department of Commerce blacklist could lose access to its services. The flights continued.

Last week, the Turkish media announced the threat, without naming the company, but appealing to a decision allegedly taken by the Turkish authorities after a letter from the US Department of Commerce. A strange “truncated” list of 30 aircraft was also circulated: 15 Aeroflot aircraft, five S7s, four Utairs, two each of Rossiya and Yamal, one Azur Air and one Icarus. And only the latter was not lucky in the end: the carrier will fly from Moscow to Turkey and back with refueling in Sochi (but the company already planned to rearrange the planes to another direction from April 20). According to Kommersant’s sources, Icarus simply did not negotiate with the handlers, deciding “to fly as it comes out.”

The rest of the list did not seem to be affected by the situation. Aeroflot has not been flying to Turkey on the 15 aircraft included in it since late February – early March. Some of my sources assure me that it was planned that way, and problems with handling have nothing to do with it. Three of the five S7 aircraft also stopped flying to the country, but two aircraft serve routes to Antalya and Istanbul without delay. Utair has the same situation, one Boeing of which flew there from Grozny on March 15 and 19.

Nevertheless, the commotion, either by accident or by design, managed to impress the passengers. Tickets to Turkey are usually booked in advance, so most of the calls now come from those who have planned a vacation for the May holidays and summer, says Ilya Zotov, head of the All-Russian Association of Passengers: “According to our information, all controversial issues have so far been resolved.”

The motives of the behavior of Turkish handlers are interpreted in the industry in different ways, because no one knows the exact reasons. Some interlocutors admit that some companies are more deeply integrated into the Western economy than others and are forced to “observe politeness” in front of partners from the United States. Others believe that the handlers, on the contrary, may be closely associated with the Turkish authorities and, following a somewhat conspiracy theory, “carry out their political will with frightening maneuvers.”

It looks like this particular incident has already been resolved, although, of course, there is no guarantee that it will not happen again. But it seems that Russian airlines are already ready for any turn, even for the need to redirect passenger traffic of 5 million people to other countries.