EU to formally sanction Belavia, officials

The European Union is likely to ramp up pressure on Belarus by formally banning state-owned carrier Belavia (B2, Minsk National) from any operations within the bloc, as well as placing travel bans and asset freezes on a number of aviation industry officials, Reuters has reported. Ambassadors from all 27 member states are likely to agree on the extent of the sanctions by the end of the current week, sources said. Their decision will then be formalised at a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers later this month. According to the sources, the sanctions could affect Belarus’s top defence and transport ministry officials, air force personnel, a top Minsk National airport official, and a senior civil aviation official. The sanctions are also expected to ban from the EU another state-owned aviation industry enterprise, although the sources did not reveal its identity. The only other active state-owned airline in Belarus is cargo specialist Transaviaexport Airlines (TXC, Minsk National), the ch-aviation PRO airlines module shows. It is not clear if the asset freezes or other sanctions, other than the overflight ban, would impact Belavia directly. The flag carrier has extensive dealings with EU-based lessors, including four E175s and three E195s dry-leased from Denmark’s Nordic Aviation Capital, one B737-300, two B737-500s, and three E195-E2s dry-leased from Ireland’s AerCap, and one B737-800 each dry-leased from Ireland’s SMBC Aviation Capital, Thunderbolt Aircraft Lease, and WNG Capital, the ch-aviation fleets ownership module shows. The sanctions are expected to be a stop-gap measure until EU politicians agree on how to punish Belarus’s more vital industrial sectors including its potash/fertiliser industry wherein the country controls 20% of the global market. The sanctions are linked to the May 23 forced diversion of a Ryanair B737-800, flying from Athens Int’l to Vilnius, by the Belarusian authorities. Upon landing at Minsk airport, an opposition journalist along with his girlfriend were detained and arrested before the aircraft was allowed to depart with a seven-hour delay. The European Council, the institution which comprises all EU heads of states and governments, adopted conclusions recommending the banning of Belavia a day after the incident. However, the body’s decisions are non-binding and need to be implemented into EU law by other bodies, including the Council of the European Union, which comprises ministers responsible for a particular policy area. So far, a number of EU countries have implemented unilateral bans on Belavia, including all of Belarus’s EU neighbours (Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland), as well as non-EU Ukraine, leaving Russia as the only neighbouring state which continues to accept the Belarusian state carrier’s flights. Left with no easy access route even to those European countries that still permit its operations, Belavia has said it will reorient its network towards more destinations in Russia. Following the recent meeting, Presidents Vladimir Putin and Aleksandr Lukashenko instructed their respective transport ministries to explore new route opportunities between the countries including the possible launch of flights from Belarus to Russian-occupied Crimea. Since Russia’s unilateral annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, no foreign carriers have started flights to Simferopol given a lack of recognition for Russian sovereignty over the region. Kyiv has even begun sanctioning Russian airlines that serve the region without its largely moot consent. According to Reuters, Lukashenko, who refused to recognise Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, has now said that Minsk is working with Moscow over the start of flights to Crimea from Belarus.