On Saturday, a SkyUp-operated Boeing 737 was barred from entering Ukraine's airspace because the leased plane's owner demanded. The Lessor has now prevented the UR-SQO from using Ukrainian airspace. Therefore, the medium-haul jet is “stranded” in Chișinău.

It definitely does not happen every day that a leasing company prohibits its customer from heading to their home airport. On Saturday, SkyUp was en route from Funchal to Kiev-Borispil with the UR-SQO. The Irish owner of this Boeing 737 then demanded that the plane land outside of Ukraine and banned the use of that state's airspace.

The flight route would have led over areas that the Lessor classified as problematic. To protect property, it was decided to make use of contractually regulated reservations. SkyUp Airlines complied and switched to Chisinau in Moldova.

“On February 12, 2022, the Ireland-based lessor informed the airline of an immediate ban of the UR-SQO from entering Ukrainian airspace. Despite the airline's best efforts and the willingness of Ukraine's government authorities to contact the lessor, the owner of the plane flatly refused, just as the plane was already flying to Kyiv," SkyUp said in a statement.

The affected aircraft is the Boeing 737 with the registration UR-SQO and the serial number MSN 40880. The jet, which is around ten years old, was originally delivered to Pegasus Airlines and has been flying for the Ukrainian low-cost airline SkyUp since August 2021. The owner and lessor is Deucalion Aviation.