(News) Insurers stop covering flights in Ukraine, which would block the country's commercial aviation

[Askor lml]

The Dutch airline KLM has already confirmed the cessation of operations in the country as of tonight, while a plane from the Ukrainian SkyUp had to land in neighboring Moldova at the request of the owner of the device.

Several of the largest international insurance companies sent this Sunday to the owners of aircraft leased by airlines an official letter informing them of the cessation of insurance coverage for any aircraft in or over Ukraine in 48 hours, the Ukrainian airline SkyUp reports.

"The decision is linked to the high risks of the outbreak of hostilities," the company specifies, thus confirming the reports published a few hours ago by the Ukrainian newspaper Strana.

"Not a single plane will take off from Ukraine and fly to Ukraine from noon on Monday," an insider from the insurance industry told the outlet.

"These monsters [British insurers] are introducing an air blockade," he said.

The information was confirmed to the newspaper by another informant, a politician who owns a private 'jet' who indicated that today he received a message from his insurance company, asking him to move his plane to the European air zone.

predictable measure
For another source, the decision "is not a surprise for the market."

"The first indication was already before the New Year, when a lessor, a European company, demanded that two planes of a Ukrainian airline be removed from Ukraine," the informant noted.

"At that time, it was still not clear what this was linked to. It started to be rumored that it was the problem of a particular airline, which had no money and it was not known whether it could pay or not, so the insurers advised the owner of the aircraft to take them to Europe. But since January, such precedents have been repeated with other airlines, "continued the source, who stated that insurance companies "demand more and more strongly" that the planes they work with do not park in Kiev.

The source added that "the decision not to cover the risks of flights over Ukraine has been maturing for a long time" and was accelerated by media speculation about the specific date of alleged Russian aggression.

As a result of the measure, not only foreign companies will stop operating flights to and from Ukraine, but also Ukrainian ones, the insider predicted. "Aircraft insurance is complex and expensive, and it is usually not provided by one company, but by several. For example, a Ukrainian airline may have insurance from a Ukrainian insurance company, but always with reinsurance in London," the source explained. , stating that without foreign insurance "there will be no guarantees for Ukrainian carriers" and "Wizz Air, which has five aircraft stationed in Ukraine, is at risk."

First negatives
Most airlines have yet to comment on the reports. However, the Dutch KLM confirmed to De Telegraaf that it is canceling flights to Kiev starting tonight and "it is still unclear" when it will reverse that decision. Likewise, SkyUp had to land in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, the plane that was flying from the Portuguese city of Funchal to Kiev, after the owner of the aircraft prohibited the device from entering Ukrainian airspace.

Commenting on the situation to Reuters, Mikhail Podoliak, adviser to the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, stressed that Ukraine "doesn't see any point in closing the sky."

"This is nonsense. And, in my opinion, it looks a bit like some kind of partial lockdown," Podoliak said.

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