Paris (AFP)

An Air France flight between Paris and Moscow on Friday was canceled for lack of a green light from Russia for a rerouting intended to avoid Belarusian airspace, the company was told.

"Air France confirms the cancellation of flight AF1154 (...) for operational reasons linked to bypassing Belarusian airspace requiring a new authorization from the Russian authorities to enter their territory," said Air France in a report. declaration.

The previous flight, Wednesday, did not take place for the same reasons, leading the French transport ministry to call on Russia to respect the "principle of reciprocity" governing bilateral relations.

Air France passengers have "been informed of the cancellation and are offered the postponement on a flight operated by the company Aeroflot or the reimbursement of their trip", according to the company.

An Aeroflot Moscow-Paris flight flew over Belarus in the late morning, according to data from the FlightRadar24 site.

He must make the return flight in the early afternoon.

The Austrian company Austrian also had to cancel a Vienna-Moscow flight on Thursday for lack of authorization from Russia to change the route.

# photo1

This one obtained Friday the authorization of the Russian authorities to bypass Belarus.

An Austrian flight from Vienna flew over Ukraine in the late morning, south of Belarus, to reach the Russian capital, according to FlightRadar24.

A Warsaw-Moscow flight by the Polish company LOT was also able to reach the Russian capital on Thursday by making a detour to avoid Belarusian airspace, just like the day before a flight by the Czech company Czech Airlines connecting Prague to Moscow, according to FlightRadar24

The rules governing air traffic and overflight rights have come to the fore since a Ryanair plane from Athens to Vilnius was intercepted on Sunday and forced to land in Minsk, where an opponent of Alexander Lukashenko's regime been disembarked and arrested.

In reaction, several European countries and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) have advised against using Belarusian airspace, while some countries including France have closed their space to the national company Belavia.

Flights between Europe and Russia "are allowed to use defined air lanes. If a company wants to change these routes, there must be a prior agreement between the company concerned and Russia", according to the European air traffic monitoring body Eurocontrol.

mra-tq-anb-tbm / soe / spinnaker

© 2021 AFP