Karen Freifeld and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK – The U.S. Commerce Department initiated enforcement actions against Aeroflot (Azur Air) and UTair Thursday. They claimed that the Russian airlines were violating American export controls in response to Russia’s invasion.

This decision follows the United States identifying more than 170 Boeing (NYSE) aircrafts in which Russian airlines had been operating in contravention of U.S. Sanctions. These included about 40 Aeroflot Boeing 737/777 planes. The enforcement action, which was taken Thursday against the airlines’ export privileges and not individual planes, targets all three of them.

Matthew S. Axelrod, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement, stated that the government thinks the orders will mean that Aeroflot and Azur Air as well as UTair’s fleet of planes “will over time largely become ineligible to fly either domestically or internationally because they have been cut off from international support and U.S. parts.

Aeroflot was allowed to continue flying the planes under its restrictions in March. These were to Beijing, Delhi and Antalya as well as Istanbul and Dubai.

If the aircraft is Russian-owned, operated or exported from Russia it will be subject to a licensing requirement.

Russia has been barred from U.S. Airspace by the United States and European Union, as well as other countries.

Russia’s biggest cargo airline Volga-Dnepr Group, said on March 18 it suspended all flights using Boeing aircraft due to Western sanctions. Volga-Dnepr stated that it had stopped the operations of AirBridgeCargo, and Atran as its two subsidiaries. S7, Russia’s biggest private airline and second largest overall, also said on March 4 it was ceasing all international flights.