(Posted 02nd September 2024)
Starting in a month from now, on October 02nd, does Aeroflot, the national airline of a country waging a continued war of aggression against Ukraine, plan to return to the Seychelles, a destination the airline left earlier this year in May.
While Seychelles tourism seems somewhat happy with the announement are others raising many questions.
The route flown by the aircraft from Moscow is under scrutiny to establish if sanctions against Russia by countries opposed to their war of aggression cannot be used to deny the use of airspace enroute to Seychelles.
That said are aviation pundits wondering about the state of air worthiness of Aeroflot’s aircraft, as access to approved spare parts has also been blocked through sanctions against Russia. The airline appears to want to use an Airbus A350 for their initially planned twice weekly flights which are reportedly due to rise to three from 28th of October. The flights are according to information received to operate until the end of March 2025. There is speculation that the airline has cannibalised one of their other A350 aircraft for spares, although it is still not clear how a crucial software update, needed for the safe operation of the aircraft, could have been legally obtained as Airbus has definitely not been part to that.
The Aviation Safety Network‘s website is also regularly reporting incidents about Russian airlines using Boeing and Airbus aircraft, a pointer well noted by those questioning the air worthiness of such planes operated by them.
Another aviation website has alleged that Russian crews have been instructed not to report technical issues: https://www.aerotelegraph.com/aeroflots-kabinencrews-duerfen-maengel-nicht-dokumentieren raising further questions about aviation safety and air worthiness of Russian planes.
Russian visitors accounted for over 21.000 arrivals during the first six months of 2024, flying since May with other airlines to the Seychelles, airlines which continue to fly to Moscow and have been termed sanction busters.
While Seychelles has always maintained to be friends with all and enemies of none must the question nevertheless be asked how one can be friends with a country waging a war of aggression against a neighbour with the expressed intent to wipe Ukraine off the map.
