TAV Airports continues to service flights of the Russian airline Ural Airlines at Antalya airport. The company has been under European Union sanctions since June 2024. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

TAV Airports is the main owner of Almaty International Airport. According to the British Financial Times, "TAV Airports – a subsidiary of the French state group ADP – continues to service flights of Russian airlines at Antalya airport in Turkey through a joint venture with the German Fraport, despite the sanctions imposed by Brussels on the carrier in June 2024. The main asset of Groupe ADP is Paris Charles de Gaulle airport."

Since September 21, the online arrivals and departures board of the Turkish airport has shown at least 54 Ural Airlines flights to cities such as Volgograd and Moscow. The ground handling service provider in Antalya is Havaş, a wholly owned subsidiary of TAV.

The European Union adopted sanctions against Ural Airlines in June 2024. Brussels later added a requirement for industry companies to make "all efforts" to ensure that they do not "undermine" sanctions related to the war in Ukraine through their organizations outside the EU. In particular, this has applied to Russia since February 2025.

Companies that fail to do so "may be subject to legal sanctions," according to European Commission guidelines.

One senior lawyer specializing in international trade and sanctions told the publication that Groupe ADP's actions "at the very least appear to contradict the spirit of EU sanctions." Groupe ADP said it "ensures strict compliance with applicable rules and sanctions."

TAV, in turn, said it has not violated sanctions and "attaches paramount importance to sanctions compliance." The company said it does not control which airlines use Antalya airport, since that is a decision of the Turkish authorities.

According to TAV, in cases where a sanctioned airline operates flights to Antalya, the company provides "only the minimum level of services required by local regulations and state contractual obligations, as well as those established by civil aviation authorities, without violating any US or EU sanctions requirements."

European legislation provides some latitude in situations where a company cannot exercise control over a subsidiary outside the European Union for reasons beyond its control, such as local legislation.

A senior lawyer on international sanctions said that "a mere contractual obligation is unlikely" to be sufficient to allow an EU organization to succeed in claiming that it cannot exercise control over a non-EU subsidiary.

Fraport said it fully complies with applicable laws and regulations and "remains committed to conducting its activities in accordance with applicable sanctions regimes and all relevant legal requirements."

Although EU sanctions are established in Brussels, their enforcement remains with member states. The French Ministry of Economy and Finance and the state participation agency that manages state corporate investments declined to comment. The European Commission also declined to comment on the case.

According to the newspaper, TAV's Turkish and Georgian airports also serviced Iranian airlines that have fallen under US sanctions. Interaction with sanctioned airlines has come under close scrutiny in recent weeks after the US blacklisted 27 Iranian carriers on September 8 in an attempt to increase pressure on Tehran.

At least eight of the Iranian airlines targeted by Washington have historically used Turkish and Georgian airports with terminals managed by TAV, and continued to do so for several weeks after the US added them to the list on September 8.

Most routes now appear to be closed, the British newspaper reports, although, for example, a Meraj Airlines flight departed Tehran for Ankara airport, which is managed by TAV, on Monday, October 5, after which it returned to Iran at night. However, TAV said it had stopped providing services to Iranian airlines sanctioned by the US on September 8, within the scope of its own control.

The majority shareholder of Almaty International Airport is TAV Airports (whose main shareholder is the French Groupe ADP, the operator of Paris's three main airports), which manages 15 airports in 8 countries.

The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) acted as an anchor lender, providing $100 million of the total $670 million syndicated loan organized by Bank of America for the further development of Almaty International Airport, it was reported at the end of September.