For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 24, 2002
Fact Sheet: Air Transport Agreement
U.S.-Russia Air Transport Agreement
Civil aviation relations with Russia are governed by a bilateral Air
Transport Agreement that entered into force on January 14, 1994. A
Protocol signed on April 5, 1999 amended the Agreement to include six
Annexes covering scheduled/charter air services, commercial
opportunities, overflights, code-sharing and Alaska-Russian Far East
air service; these Annexes expired on January 22, 2001. On April 11,
2002, agreement was reached to amend and extend these six Annexes to
April 2004.
- Included in the new Annexes is formal authority for United
States airlines to use cross-polar air routes informally opened for
commercial purposes by the Russian authorities in February 2001.
- Cross-polar routes connect the eastern coast of the United
States with destinations in Asia via non-stop routes that substantially
reduce flying time and expense. Polar route flights between New York
City and Singapore cut flying times by more than three hours, reduce
flight miles by almost 20 percent, and save airlines almost $28,000 per
flight.
- The new Annex IV assures American carriers of the right to
overfly and stop for non-traffic purposes on 70 flights per week (35
southbound and 35 northbound) on the cross-polar routings until April
2004. These cross-polar routings are of particular interest to United
States airlines.
- The April discussions also resulted in an increase to 42 (21
eastbound and 21 westbound) overflights of Russia linking Europe and
the Indian subcontinent.
- In addition, the number of weekly flights by American carriers
on the commercially important Transeast (Pacific) and Europe-Southeast
Asia (Tashkent) routings over Russian territory were preserved
unchanged -- 200 eastbound/400 westbound and 14 eastbound/14 westbound,
respectively.
- Annex VI also specifies a United States right to provide
scheduled air service to Anadyr, Lavrentiya and Provideniya in the
Russian Far East, thus furthering the connections between Alaska and
its near neighbors to the East.
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