Aviacon Zitotrans (part of AVS-Group) is going to keep flying to the EU, says the company’s press officer. Until the carrier fixes all the problems regarding its aircraft (all of which were revealed in the course of commissions in 2004-2006), it will have to obtain special one-time permission to perform flights to Europe. The procedure includes applying for the permission seven days before the flight and the obligatory notification of the Russian Federation aviation authorities and of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy and Transport regarding the examination of the airplane and its satisfactory condition.

‘We have to deal with a more complicated way of getting permissions to fly to the EU at the moment. This format is going to be used while the Russian Federation Ministry of Transport eliminates all the violations of the requirements imposed on Russian carriers by the SAFA inspectors in 2004-2006,’ says Ilya Kuznetsov, the General Director of Aviacon Zitotrans.

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy and Transport declared in February that it was no longer legal for a number of Russian air carriers to perform chartered or one-time flights to the EU after the SAFA examinations carried out in 2004-2006. There are nine airlines on this list altogether: Aero Rent (Moscow), Tatarstan (Kazan), Atlant-Soyuz, Aviacon Zitotrans (Yekaterinburg), Center Avia (Moscow), Gazpromavia, Lukoil, Russkoe Nebo (Moscow), and UTair.