Feb 28, 2022: According to a report by Reuters, Russia’s airline Aeroflot on Sunday violated a ban on aircraft from the country using Canadian airspace, regulator Transport Canada said, on the same day the restriction was imposed in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Transport Canada made the annoucement on Sunday on twitter, “We are aware that Aeroflot Flight 111 violated the prohibition put in place earlier today on Russian flights using Canadian airspace,”

The flight 111 was enroute from Miami to Moscow and took off at 3.15pm local time according to FlightRadar24. Earlier that day, Alghabra announced at 0900 am local time on Sunday that Canada would close its airspace to Russian aircraft operators following similar measures from other countries.

Though there are no direct flights between Russia and Canada, the country’s airspace has been used by several Russian flights and many have until now passed through Canadian airspace to other countries, a spokesperson for Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said.

“We will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action and other measures to prevent future violations”, the Canadian regulator said. The matter will be investigated and the transport regulator will launch a review into the conduct of Aeroflot and Canada’s air-traffic control service provider Nav Canada following the violation.

Canada and Britain both have banned Russian carrier Aeroflot from their airspace.

Poland and the Czech Republic also said they were blocking Russian airlines from their airspace, while airlines, including IAG-owned British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, began flying around Russian airspace. Canada, along with the United States, has imposed harsh sanctions on Russia, targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Canada was also part of the Western alliance that on Saturday blocked “selected” Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system.

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