The European Union has closed its airspace to the Turkish airline Southwind Airlines, suspecting it of having ties to Russia.
Source. This is reported by the Turizm Guncel publication.
This decision was made as part of the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. The entire European airspace is closed for Southwind.
The Finnish authorities were the first to investigate Southwind Airlines, and as a result, they banned flights from Antalya to Helsinki, Turizm Guncel reports.
According to Bild, this company, founded shortly after the start of Russia's war against Ukraine, is formally based in Antalya, but all three of its aircraft and a significant number of employees moved there from Russia's Nordwind Airlines.
The latter, in turn, is owned by the Pegas Touristik travel agency. Southwind Airlines planned to launch flights from Turkey to Berlin, Dusseldorf and other German cities.
European countries closed their airspace to Russian aircraft immediately after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Planes of Russian airlines were arrested abroad and denied maintenance.
Background. It was reported that the Finnish authorities will not issue a permit to a Turkish company to fly to Finland because of the "Russian trace".