Norwegian airline head urges to close airspace for Russian aircraft

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 13

Trend:

The head of the Norwegian airlines Bjørn Kjos appealed to the government of the Kingdom with a request to close the airspace over Norway for Russian transit flights as a sign of protest against a similar ban of the Russian authorities, RIA Novosti reported with reference to Dagens Naringsliv.

"Norway must respond to Russia that it will close its airspace if Russia does not open its," he said. "Then the problem will be resolved within 24 hours."

It is reported that Norwegian airlines' rival - SAS (Scandinvian Airlines)- is entitled to fly over Russian territory to Asia, but Norwegian airlines has not received such permission.

"Norway has asked Russia why the neighbor in the East does not authorize Norwegian to fly over Russia to Thailand," a statement says.

The Norwegian Ministry of Transport has not made conclusions about the reasons of this ban yet.

"The Russian authorities are aware that according to the current agreements between the two countries, a refusal from entitling the Norwegian companies to fly over the Russian territory may cause bad consequences for Russian carriers whose planes fly over Norway," a representative of the Norwegian ministry said in an interview with Dagens Naringsliv.

Edited by CN