The Turkish airline Southwind Airlines, which was originally founded specifically for air traffic between Turkey and Russia, is now prohibited from flying its Boeing 737-Max machines to the Russian Federation.
However, the ban was not imposed by the Russian authorities, but rather by those in the United States of America, the country where the affected model was manufactured. Southwind is now trying to rebook affected passengers on other airlines, mainly Russian carriers, if possible.
According to a report in the Russian daily newspaper "Izvestia", the USA should not be able to directly ban flying between the two countries. However, Turkey would have been threatened through diplomatic channels that sanctions would be imposed on Southwind Airlines or that the affected Boeing 737-Max would be placed on the list of sanctioned assets, so that it could be threatened with seizure in partner countries.
Southwind Airlines is a formally Turkey-based subsidiary of Russia's Northwind Airlines. This company has been a thorn in the side of American and European politicians, among others, since it is accused of having been founded to circumvent the sanctions against Russia.
It is therefore not surprising that Southwind has had a lot of headwinds when it comes to putting its four Boeing 737-Max-8 into the fleet. Only the TC-GRM is currently used commercially, but has not flown for some time. The TC-GRK has been stuck in Keflavik since the delivery flight refueled. The TC-GRO was last deployed between Turkey and Russia earlier this month. The same applies to the TC-GRJ. Since then, Southwind has operated A321neo/A321 aircraft between Turkey and Russia. This is an indication that the order from the USA has been bowed to.