Ukrainian airline SkyUp said today that the flight connecting Madeira to Kiev has landed in Chisinau, Moldova, because the Irish company, which owns the plane, announced a ban on flying over Ukrainian airspace.
“According to the aircraft owner’s requirement flight PQ0902 on the Funchal-Borispol route was forced to land in Chisinau”, says the airline in a statement published on its website.
According to the published note, “the owner [of the plane], residing in Ireland, informed the airline about the immediate ban on the entry of the UR-SQO aircraft into Ukrainian airspace.”
“Despite all the efforts of the airline and the availability of Ukrainian state structures to submit an application to the lessor, the owner of the plane categorically denied it, at the time the plane was already moving to Kiev,” writes SkyUp.
The airline says in the statement that it obtained authorization to land at the closest airport to Ukraine, in Chisinau, in the capital of Moldova, and that it organized “the transport, as well as food, of the 175 passengers to the Ukrainian capital”.
This came shortly after Ukrainian media announced that some of the most important international insurers had stopped covering airlines flying over Ukraine from Monday, due to the threat of a Russian attack.
According to the same portal, on Saturday, the largest British insurers, which in turn reinsure other insurers, sent an official letter to all aircraft lessors to warn them that insurance coverage in Ukraine, and for planes that fly over the country, it will cease to function within 48 hours.
The measure would mean an air blockade over the country, as “no planes would take off from Ukraine or land in Ukraine from Monday noon,” a source at Strana told EFE news agency.
According to the Dutch newspaper De Telegrafa, the Dutch airline KLM has announced that it will stop operating flights to Ukraine, “as a preventive measure against the threat of war in the country”.