MSGID: 2:292/854 11162a21
TZUTC: 0100                  
Russian planes are no longer welcome in Belgium.
 
Many other countries have already made that decision, but a coordinated
European approach is yet to come.
 
On Sunday, Finland and Romania announced that they are taking the same measure
in retaliation for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Germany have also done so
before. Russian planes that want to fly to the still accessible countries in
the west, therefore have to make an increasingly large detour.
 
The European Union is likely to make a coordinated decision on Sunday. 
 
For the time being, flights to and from Moscow have still been announced at
Brussels Airport. These are operated by the Russian Aeroflot. Probably they
will be deleted from the schedule later today.
 
Moscow has also closed its airspace to a number of countries. This concerns
airlines from, among others, the Baltic States and Slovenia. This was a
reprisal for the closure of their airspace. The same sanction may therefore
also follow for Belgian aircraft.
 
Some airlines are already voluntarily staying out of Russian airspace. For
example, the German airline group Lufthansa and the Dutch airline KLM
announced on Saturday that they would not fly to and over Russia for the next
seven days.

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