BRUSSELS, July 18 (RIA Novosti) – A temporary suspension of civil aviation traffic above eastern Ukraine will affect 350 flights daily, but passengers are unlikely to experience any serious inconvenience, Europe’s air traffic control service Eurocontrol said Friday.
Given that at least 30-40 air carriers regularly fly their aircraft above the Ukrainian airspace, the temporary suspension of air traffic will affect 350 flights daily, or 1 percent of all European civil aviation traffic, said Brian Flynn, the head of Performance, Forecasting and Relations in the organization’s Network Manager Directorate (NMD).
The move will also make air traffic in neighboring Poland, Bulgaria and Turkey more intense, the official said, adding that passengers were unlikely to be seriously affected by the move because it would cause minimal flight delays, if any.
The decision to suspend civil aviation traffic above eastern Ukraine came soon after the tragic event on Thursday, when a Malaysian plane with 298 people on board crashed in the Eastern Ukraine, leaving no survivors.
A few major airlines in Russia and other countries have already decided to make amendments to their flight routes or even suspend them.
At the moment, Ukrainian authorities and Malaysia Airlines are investigating the incident. International observers, including the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) and Interpol experts, also intend to join the investigation of the case.
