Germany wants to know if other European freight carriers besides Lufthansa Cargo have been banned from flying in Russian airspace and might ask the EU to weigh in on the matter, the transport ministry said Thursday.
"We would like to know if other countries have problems, and if necessary we will go to the European Union," a ministry spokesman said. Meanwhile, "talks are continuing with the Russians at the junior minister level," he added.
Since winter flying hours took effect on Sunday, Russia has banned Lufthansa Cargo flights over its territory, with German press reports pointing to a dispute over new tariffs imposed by Moscow.
On Monday, Germany forbade flights by the Russian airline Aeroflight from landing at Frankfurt but lifted the ban on Tuesday "in order to create a good climate for discussions," according to the ministry spokesman. Lufthansa Cargo, however, is still prevented from using Russian airspace to reach an Asian distribution hub in Astana, Kazakhstan.
The German company said it was being forced to make costly detours to reach Astana and another airport at the Uzbek capital Tashkent. A Lufthansa spokesman told the online edition of Der Spiegel magazine: "Russia's ban is causing us huge losses, because it means that we have to reroute flights to Japan, China, North Korea and Singapore. It takes a lot longer and costs a lot of money."
The EU has negotiated an agreement with Russia under which Moscow by 2013 will phase out taxes on all European flights to Asia that go over Siberia. The charges cost European airlines about 330 million euros (476 million dollars) last year, but the agreement has not yet been signed.
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