The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has ordered Aeroflot (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo), AirBridgeCargo (RU, Ulyanovsk Vostochny), and Yakutia Airlines (R3, Yakutsk) to file the schedules of their full-cargo and mixed-cargo operations overflying the United States. The move comes in retaliation to a recent decision by the Russian government which imposed operational restrictions on overflights by American cargo operators.
The DOT has said in a filing that it will evaluate whether the current Russian cargo overflights are in accordance with the law and do not adversely affect the public interest. At this moment, no further restrictions have been taken. The three Russian airlines have until May 30, 2018, to file their schedules.
It is recalled that recently, the Russian government has not authorised US carriers to overfly the Russian territory as planned during the Season 2018 season. Although Moscow has not blocked the services as such, it has forced the carriers to take a more easterly route, thus negatively affecting the schedules and economic viability.
"U.S. carriers are now experiencing significant disruption to all-cargo services between Europe and Asia and have had to adjust service to utilize routings that require significant additional time and cost (fuel, crew, reduced payload, etc.), reducing competition and jeopardizing established slot access at Asia’s and Europe’s busiest airports. Some flights may be canceled as no longer commercially viable. These overflights were denied without prior notification to, or discussions with, the US Government," the DOT has said.
The overflights regime between Russia and the US is governed by an agreement in force since 1994 and amended in 1999, which assumes comity and reciprocity. Although further annexes negotiated in 2002, 2005, 2008, and 2013 have never been brought legally into effect, until recently both sides applied them reciprocally. This reciprocity has stopped in April when Russia refused to participate in a planned round of negotiations.
