EU decides to close airspace to Turkey’s Southwind Airlines amid suspicions of its ties to Russia.

This decision was taken as part of the sanctions imposed by the European Union against Russia. As a result, all European airspace is now closed for Southwind Airlines.

Finnish authorities, after investigating Turkish airline Southwind Airlines, were the first to ban its flights between Antalya and Helsinki, Turizm Guncel reported.

According to Bild, the airline was founded shortly after the outbreak of war. Although formally registered in Antalya, most of its assets and personnel, including all three aircraft, were transferred from Russia’s Nordwind Airlines, owned by tour operator Pegas Touristik. Southwind Airlines was planning to operate flights from Turkey to German cities such as Berlin and Düsseldorf.

The imposition of restrictions led to a significant delay in the departure of Russian tourists from Sharm El Sheikh; their flight was delayed for 11 hours.

After the Russian Federation launched its invasion of Ukraine, European countries closed their airspace to Russian airplanes. Following this, Russian airlines faced arrests of aircraft abroad and denials of maintenance.