The Finnish transport and communications agency Traficom banned the flights of the Turkish airline Southwind Airlines to Finland due to its connections with Russia.
What is known about the bans for Southwind Airlines
Our overall assessment shows that a significant portion of the ownership and effective control of Southwind Airlines is held by unspecified Turkish individuals or companies. We came to the conclusion that the airline and its control are connected with the Russian side, said Traficom CEO Jarkko Saarimäki.
It is worth noting that Southwind Airlines was established in Turkey in 2022, immediately after the imposition of sanctions on Russian airlines due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The media connected her with the Russian tour operator Pegas Touristik, which was allowed to continue transporting Russian tourists to Turkey despite the sanctions.
Southwind Airlines specializes in transporting tourists to Turkey and has applied for flights between Antalya and Helsinki. One of the recent new routes was Istanbul-Minsk. After that, the German publication Bild called the airline a front company created to transport illegal migrants to Europe via Minsk.
Before the war in Ukraine began, Pegas Touristik transported tourists on planes affiliated with the Russian airline Nordwind Airlines. After sanctions were imposed, part of the Nordwind Airlines fleet was withdrawn from Russia, and these aircraft ended up in the Southwind Airlines fleet.
What is known about the problems with the aviation industry in the Russian Federation
"Aeroflot" began to get rid of business class in planes due to a lack of boards. The Russian carrier intends to get rid of the business class on several Superjet 100s. We are talking about nine planes of its subsidiary — the airline company "Rossiya". It lacks 100-seater boards of this type on resort and tourist routes.
After the invasion of Ukraine, Russia seized more than 400 aircraft belonging to foreign companies worth billions of dollars. It caused the most significant skirmish in history in the ordinarily stable business of aviation insurance.
