Cargo Blackmail?

"We sent a letter to our German colleagues on October 22 in which we suggest using either Krasnojarsk or Nowosibirk as hubs," Russian Transport Ministry spokesman Timur Khikmatov told business daily Financial Times Deutschland on Thursday, Nov. 1. "We have not yet received a reply.

"If they want to resume flights they have to formally apply for new permission," Khikmatov added.

A Lufthansa spokesperson told German newspaper Die Welt on Friday that the locations suggested by the Russians did not have the infrastructure or technology required to run an economically successful cargo hub and permit fog-bound landings.

Flight delays, increased costs

Since Oct. 28, Lufthansa Cargo has been unable to fly over Russia to reach its Astana hub in Kazakhstan as a result of a dispute over the rates charged. Astana is the key staging point for the company's flights to South and East Asia.

Lufthansa Cargo has 49 return flights a week to Astana. As a result of having to fly around Russia, the flights take 90 minutes longer in each direction, resulting in the burning of an additional 600,000 liters (158,550 gallons) of fuel a week, which costs Lufthansa $400,000 (276,000 euros), according to the airline.

In retaliation for the Russian ban, Germany forbade flights by the Russian airline Aeroflot from landing at Frankfurt on Monday but quickly lifted the ban on Tuesday "in order to create a good climate for discussions," a spokesman for German Transport Ministry said.

Lufthansa has called on Berlin to find a political solution to the issue, and while talks between Germany and Russia have begun, members of the German parliament's Transport Committee said they doubted a resolution would be reached soon.

Help from Brussels

Citing anonymous politicians, the online version of Der Spiegel newsmagazine called the Russian demands an "attempt to blackmail" Lufthansa into moving its cargo hub in order to cash in on landing fees and flyover charges.

Officials in Berlin were considering calling for the European Union's help on Thursday. A German Transport Ministry spokesman said investigations were underway to check if other airlines were also affected.

"We are also looking into whether the European Union should become involved," the spokesman said.

The EU has negotiated an agreement with Russia under which Moscow by 2013 will phase out taxes on all European flights to Asia that go over Siberia.

The charges cost European airlines about 330 million euros last year, but the agreement has not yet been signed.