With almost all European airlines boycotting Belarus air space, Ukraine hopes to get some of the East-West overflight traffic, Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s new Infrastructure Minister,

said yesterday. Due to the EU reaction to Sunday’s forced landing of the Ryanair passenger jet in Minsk, Belarus now faces losing $50-70 million a year in overflight fees. Last week, only 20% of the 3,300 flights in Belarus airspace landed in Minsk, according to Flightradar24. Yesterday evening, this tracking service showed only five planes flying over Belarus – an Aeroflot, an S7, an Ethiopian Airlines jet and two corporate jets.