EU-Russia Aviation Relations and the Issue of Siberian Overflights

Since Soviet times, EU carriers have to pay royalties for getting the right to overfly Russian territory on flights from Europe to Asia, in particular Japan, China and South Korea. These payments are not only detrimental to the further development of air services between Europe and Asia, there are also an important trade irritant between the EU and the Russian Federation until today and are considered by the EU as being non-compliant with international standards. This article describes the system of overflight royalties and the history and development of the discussions between the EU and the Russian Federation since the early nineties until the agreement on the 'Agreed Principles' from 2006.