Nine Russian airline companies have been banned from flying to the European Union. The difference is that the banning was done by the Russian authorities. Russian transport supervision and air transport agencies have issued a joint order, barring nine Russian air companies from operating scheduled and charter flights to the European Union from February 12 on, the Transport Ministry said on 16 Feb.

The companies, which include UTAir and Atlant-Soyuz from amongst Russia’s top ten air carriers, do not expect major losses from the ban as they don't operate that many flights in the low winter season. The air carriers largely retorted that the Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft (SAFA) inspections had found only minor problems. However the European Commission had sent a notice to Russian air transport officials listing the same nine Russian companies. They'd scored the lowest in inspections by SAFA in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

The EU indicated that it could blacklist those companies and bar them from flying to the EU. Russian air authorities have put their ban in place ahead of any such action. “We hope that these measures will help these companies escape blacklisting in the EU,” deputy chief of the Russian Air Agency Evgeny Bachurin said. "European Commission’s next air safety committee review is on February 21. If the problems are addressed by then we may lift the Russian ban", he said.