In the midst of the worsening Ukraine crisis, a Passenger plane coming from Portugal with the destination of Kiev have been prevented from flying into Ukrainian airspace. The plane’s owner, an Irish leasing company, revoked the crew’s permission to fly into Ukrainian airspace at the last minute, Ukrainian low-cost airline Skyup said on Sunday. The machine therefore has unscheduled landing in Moldova have to.
“Despite the airline’s efforts and the Ukrainian government’s willingness to talk to the leasing company,” the plane’s owner “categorically refused permission to enter Ukrainian airspace,” Skyup said. Work is now being done on transfer options for the 175 passengers stranded in Chisinau on flight 175.
Despite tensions with Russia, Ukraine is currently no reason to close their airspace. Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the President’s chief of staff such a consideration “nonsense”. If airlines change their flight plans, this has nothing to do with decisions of the Ukrainian state. It reminds him of a “partial blockade”.
The incident came a day after Dutch airline KLM announced it was suspending its Ukraine flights due to the Ukraine crisis. It is expected that other western airlines will soon stop their flights to Ukraine – also because the Insurance costs for such flights continue to rise given the crisis should. Added to this is the memory of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, which killed 298 people. (AFP/Reuters)