Following the lead of Canada and more than two dozen countries in the European Union, the U.S. is banning Russian aircraft in its airspace, President Biden announced Tuesday night.
As of early Wednesday, at least 31 other countries had shuttered their airspace to Russian aircraft in retaliation for the country’s invasion of Ukraine. A number of airspace bans were put in place over the weekend across Europe severely restricting where Russian airlines and other operators can fly.
The move in the U.S. is part of a broader Biden Administration clamp-down on Russian assets in the country, including yachts and luxury real estate, he said.
The United States of America stands with the Ukrainian people. pic.twitter.com/EXiMnq5RDy
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 2, 2022
“We are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets,” Biden said during his State of the Union address. “Tonight, I am announcing that we will join our allies in closing off American air space to all Russian flights—further isolating Russia—and adding an additional squeeze on their economy.”
Both the U.S. Department of Transportation and the FAA are issuing orders blocking Russian aircraft and airlines from entering and using all domestic airspace, the FAA said in a statement Wednesday morning
The orders will be fully effective by the end of Wednesday.
“The Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) and regulatory orders will suspend operations of all aircraft owned, certified, operated, registered, chartered, leased, or controlled by, for, or for the benefit of, a person who is a citizen of Russia,” the FAA said in a statement. “This includes passenger and cargo flights, and scheduled as well as charter flights, effectively closing U.S. air space to all Russian commercial air carriers and other Russian civil aircraft.”
The countries prohibiting the overflying of Russian owned and operated aircraft (as of March 2, 2022) are:
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Croatia
- Republic of Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Netherlands
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- United States
