US Bans Air Travel to Belarus Following Aircraft Diversion

The U.S. Transportation Department imposed a final order, on Tuesday, banning ticket sales for air travel between the United States and Belarus.

This move was proposed on June 29 after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land and arrested a dissident journalist who was aboard.

Mainly, the order indicates that ticket sales for flights between the two countries are banned, including “interline” travel where multiple flights are used to get to a destination.

Under consideration by the U.S. government for several weeks, the order is mostly symbolic since relatively few tickets are purchased for travel to Belarus from U.S.-based travel services.

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) said, in written comments, it strongly supports the action, adding the “aggressive and unwarranted interception of a passenger aircraft over Belarus is a flagrant violation of Belarus’s obligations… and flaunts accepted norms of international behavior.”

Moreover, ALPA called on the department “to ensure that all measures of sanctions at State’s disposal are deployed to compel a final and apologetic resolution by Belarus."

"A message should be sent that aggressive action against civil aircraft will be met with a swift and appropriate response to deter similar conduct by any other would-be state actors,” it stressed.

Following the forced landing of the Ryanair flight, which was en route from Athens to Vilnius, the U.S. government urged passenger airlines to use “extreme caution” when flying over Belarus. Nevertheless, the United States stopped short at that time of imposing any restrictions.

The order allows the U.S. government “to make case-by-case exceptions for any transportation deemed to be in the national interest of the United States, including on humanitarian or national security grounds.”