EU sanctions: Aeroflot suspends flights of fledgling budget airline Dobrolet
Russia’s flagship airline Aeroflot has suspended flights of its newly launched budget airline Dobrolet as a result of the EU’s latest round of sanctions.
Dobrolet, which made its first commercial flight in June, has been grounded after the airline was added to a new list of sanctioned entities because the airline operates flights between Russia and Simferopol in the Crimea.
The part state-owned carrier said that European companies have declined to provide services to Dobrolet, including leasing, repair, maintenance and flight information and that insurance agreements had been annulled.
Aeroflot said Dobrolet “has no option but to suspend flights and ticket sales” from tomorrow.
Dobrolet flies from Moscow to Simferopol in the disputed territory of Crimea four times a day and is the airline’s main destination. It also has routes to seven cities in the southern part of Russia using Boeing 737 aircraft.
Upon launching last month, it said new routes to St Petersburg and Samara would begin in August and that international destinations, including Europe, were planned for 2016.
The ambitious expansion it outlined includes investment of $100m to create a fleet of 40 aircraft operating on 45 routes carrying more than 10 million passengers by 2018.
The sanctions imposed by the EU will put these plans on hold for an unknown amount of time.