Ural Airlines cancels flights to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Israel, UAE until March 26

YEKATERINBURG. March 5 (Interfax) - Ural Airlines has cancelled a number of international flights for the period until March 26, the airline's press service said.

Flights to the United Arab Emirates, Armenia and Israel stopped on March 4, and flights to Azerbaijan became unavailable on March 5.

The airline explained its decision with "the current geopolitical situation."

A Ural Airlines flight, which was supposed to bring in passengers from Dubai, was detained for a document check on Friday. The press service did not say how the detained plane situation was resolved.

For its part, S7 has also cancelled a number of international flights amid reports on the seizure of aircraft. Besides Europe, flights have been suspended to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Egypt, Thailand, and South Korea.

The European Union published an updated package of sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine situation early in the morning on February 26. The package includes a ban on the delivery of foreign-made aircraft and spares to Russia. Leasing companies were prohibited from concluding new contracts with Russian companies and were compelled to terminate the current contracts within 30 days.

Pobeda Airline Director for Legal Affairs Alexei Tankevich said on Friday that leasing companies had taken back several planes. The seizure of a Boeing 737 plane in Istanbul was reported by a source from the airline earlier. Nordwind reported the seizure of a Boeing 777 in Mexico due to the terminated insurance policy. Other Russian airlines have not reported such cases as of yet.

Ural Airlines is among Russia's top five air carriers by traffic volume. The airline is based at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport, the Yekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport, and the St. Petersburg Pulkovo Airport. Ural Airlines General Director Sergei Skuratov is the main shareholder of the company.

Ural Airlines operates a fleet of 53 Airbus planes (14 A321, 24 A320, 5 A319, 3 A320neo, 7 A321neo). All of them are used under operating leases.