The European Commission (EC) has included the Russian air carrier Skol in the list of companies whose activities are prohibited on the territory of the European Union. The EC fears that the company will not be able to comply with international safety standards, according to a message on the EC website.
In total, 97 companies from different countries are included in the blacklist, which are prohibited from doing business in the EU. Skol is the first Russian carrier to be included in this list.
In most cases, we are talking about carriers from African countries, and airlines from Armenia, Afghanistan, Venezuela and other states were also banned from flying to the EU. Carriers were subject to restrictions due to “inadequate safety oversight by the aviation authorities” and “due to identified serious safety deficiencies”.
Skol Airlines is a resident of the Special Economic Zone of the Kaliningrad Region. In 2016, Rostransnadzor announced that it was carrying out unscheduled inspections of Skol Airlines in connection with the Mi-8T helicopter crash.
In June 2016, the Federal Air Transport Agency excluded 35 aircraft from the Skol operator’s certificate, leaving only 18 aircraft in it due to the carrier’s outstanding debt to the State Transport Leasing Company for leasing payments, TASS reported. After that, Skol asked the Ministry of Transport to cancel the order of the Federal Air Transport Agency to ban the operation of aircraft from its fleet pending the decision of the Arbitration Court on the issue of debt.
The amount owed by Skol Airlines to STLC in April 2021 amounted to more than RUB 3 billion, the press service of STLC reported. As a result of repeated negotiations, the airline was unable to agree with STLC on the terms of resolving the situation and the prompt return of overdue debts.
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