Air France has been forced to cancel its route between Paris and Moscow after the Russian authorities failed to approve a new routing to enter their territory.
Air France’s flight AF1154 was cancelled on 26 and 27 May as it was scheduled to operate on a new route designed to bypass Belarusian airspace.
The European Union has urged all of its airlines to avoid Belarusian airspace after Belarus hijacked a Ryanair Boeing 737 en route to Lithuania from Greece to arrest a political opponent.
On Wednesday, the captain announced that the flight was cancelled while all passengers were already on board the Boeing 787-9, and the flight was ready to depart.
A video shared on the internet shows all the passengers on board the flight and ready to take off.
Airfrance отменила рейс Париж-Москва из-за отсутствия разрешения на заход в пространство России. Это связано с решением компании облетать Беларусь
Видео: очевидец, для «Новой»https://t.co/XSCt0yqZ0F pic.twitter.com/uZLrOw9x2W
— Новая Газета (@novaya_gazeta) May 26, 2021
In a statement, Air France said:
“Air France confirms that flight AF1154 (CDG / SVO) had to be cancelled due to technical reasons related to bypassing the airspace of Belarus, which required a new permit to enter Russian airspace from the Russian authorities.”