Dozens of flights disrupted at Moscow airports under “Carpet” plan

Moscow’s Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo airports suspended operations for the second consecutive night after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russian airspace was unsafe for civil aviation.

“Temporary restrictions have been imposed on the arrival and departure of aircraft,” Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) said on September 2.

According to a Russian Telegram channel, more than 120 flights were delayed or cancelled at Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo amid a drone attack on Moscow.

At the two Moscow airports, schedule changes affected nearly 40 departing flights and more than 80 arriving flights.

Preliminary reports indicate that passengers had already boarded several aircraft when the “Carpet” plan was introduced at Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo at 10:27 p.m. local time. Some flights were rescheduled for the following day.

The “Carpet” plan (also known as signal or regime “Kovyor”) is a longstanding Russian aviation emergency protocol, regulated under government rules on airspace use, activated by air defence forces when unidentified objects appear in the airspace or when there is an unauthorised border crossing or weapons use against a violator. 

It requires all civilian aircraft in the affected zone to land immediately or leave the area, while airports temporarily suspend arrivals and departures until the threat is cleared

By Jeyhun Aghazada