Slovenia bans Russian aircraft from its airspace

Ljubljana – Due to Russia’s attack on Ukraine the government decided to ban Russian aircraft from Slovenia’s airspace at a correspondence session on Saturday after a number of European countries made the same move. The decision enters into force today and will remain in place “until the reasons for it cease to apply”, the government said.

Slovenia has banned from its airspace aircraft registered in Russia and operators based in Russia and licensed by the competent Russian authority.

According to a press release by the Government Communications Office, the decision is in line with Article 11 of the aviation act to ensure Slovenia’s defence interests regarding the current crisis in Ukraine.

The Slovenian Air Traffic Control Agency, the state provider of air navigation services, will ensure that Russian flight plans are not accepted in Slovenian airspace.

In the event that a Russian aircraft seeks to enter Slovenia’s airspace, it will not be allowed to do so by the relevant air traffic services unit.

A number of other EU countries – Poland, the Czech Republic, the three Baltic countries, Romania and Bulgaria – have also decided to take this step, and Prime Minister Janez Janša announced on Twitter a few hours ago that Slovenia was going to follow suit.

Russia has already reacted to this and has so far closed its airspace to aircraft from several of these countries.

At an emergency meeting on Friday, the government introduced restrictions in Slovenian airspace, which will allow military aircraft of allied countries to use the airspace more easily for overflights when deploying troops to NATO’s eastern flank.

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