As reported by the Ministry of Transport, it is planned to consider cancellation of “appointed carriers” system and replacement of the existing bilateral intergovernmental agreements on air travel by the single multilateral one during Russia-EU summit, which will be taking place in St. Petersburg in mid-October, Izvestiya reports.

During negotiations with Russia, European Union is traditionally insisting on liberalization of air travel with reference to the concept of united European sky. The Europeans have warned many times about necessity of reviewing the idea of “appointed carriers” (an airline, appointed on the contract routes by the governments of two countries). According to EU, ignoring this problem may cause the juridical prohibition for European airlines on performing flights to Russia. The fact is that this term is connected to the national identity of the airline. However, international integration processes have resulted in ambiguity; for example, it is hard to say what countries do airlines like Swiss and Austrian Airlines, forming part of Lufthansa, represent — Switzerland, Austria or Germany. That is why EU offers to consider any European airlines as the carriers to the Russian cities, independent of the country, where the airline is registered. 

Russian aviation authorities have not unveiled their plans yet. Federal Air Transport Agency has only stated that it is planned to strengthen the interaction with EU aviation authorities safeguarding interests of the Russian airlines during the future negotiations.  

The exact topics to be discussed will be unveiled close to the start of the summit, the source reports. But it is already clear that the Russian aviation authorities are ready to agree with the Europeans’ proposal and allow all the European airlines to perform flights to Russia, but only under conditions of keeping the parity in air travel between the parties. It is intended that the EU will specify which airlines will fly to Russia. 

The parties may come to an agreement regarding the renewal of bilateral agreements between Russia and all the countries of EU in order to cancel the concept of “appointed carrier”. Already approved variant of new typical intergovernmental agreement on air travel between Russia and Finland will be used as a template. 

The initial version of the document will be sent to all the EU countries in the nearest future. It already contains information on regulation of flights between our country and European states.