The United States has imposed sanctions on Ukrainian airlines Bukovyna (Chernivtsi) and Ukrainian-Mediterranean Airlines (Um Air, Kyiv) and their key owner Rodrigue Elias Merhej, for cooperating with Iranian airlines Mahan Air and Iran Air, reads a report of the Department of the Treasury of the United States has reported.
The airlines were sanctioned for providing financial, material, or technological support for, or financial or other services to Iranian airlines, by leasing or selling aircraft to them. The aircraft were used for supporting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force, the country’s Ministry of Defense and Lebannon’s Hezbollah, including aircraft used to make supplies of cargo to Syria.
The document says that Um Air leased a BAe-146 Avro RJ100 aircraft to Mahan Air. Um Air was also actively assisting Mahan Air by helping to train and certify Mahan Air pilots and engineers on BAe-146 aircraft.
The department also said that together, Bukovyna AE and Um Air have exported dozens of aircraft to Iran since 2010. Bukovyna and Um Air have upwards of twenty-five aircraft in Iran now that are registered in their names. Aircraft provided by Bukovyna have been used by Mahan Air to fly to Syria on numerous occasions.
Kyrgyz Trans Avia (Bishkek) and Sirjanco Trading L.L.C. from the United Arab Emirates were also sanctioned.
Interfax-Ukraine has not managed to receive comments on the sanctions from the Ukrainian airlines and the State Aviation Service of Ukraine.
Um Air was created in 1998. Its key owner with a 90% stake as of July 2012 was Merhej. According to the information on its Web site, the company regularly flies from Kyiv to Beirut (Lebanon), Amman (Jordan), Bagdad (Iraq) and Teheran (Iran). Its fleet consists of two MD-82 and two MD-83 aircraft.
Private joint stock company Bukovyna was founded in 1999. Its key owner with an 88.32% stake as of early 2013 was Merhej. According to the annual report of the airline, this year it planned to use aircraft of the MD-80 (82, 83, 88) type, Fokker, and BAe-146 on the regular and charter flights on the routes from Kyiv to Uzhgorod, Mink, Batumi, Simferopol, Kharkiv, Teheran, although there are no details on its current operations.
