Finnair has suspended flights to Estonia due to GPS signal failures

Finnair airline suspended flights from Finland to the Estonian city of Tartu at least until May 31. This decision was due to interruptions in the GPS navigation system signal along the aircraft route. Previously, the Baltic countries accused Russia of jamming GPS signals in the Baltic Sea area and interfering with air traffic.

Last week, two Finnair planes flying from Helsinki to Tartu were forced to return to Finland due to interference with the GPS signal, due to which contact with the Estonian airport was lost. The airline hopes that Tartu Airport will be able to launch an alternative navigation system not related to GPS within May, and then it will be able to resume flights. Finnair is the only airline that has direct flights between Finland and Tartu.

Earlier, the foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said that Russia was responsible for the outages and that they perceived these actions as hostile. In a Financial Times publication citing a source it saysthat Russia is jamming GPS signals to prevent drone attacks on Kaliningrad.

In April 2024, The Sun newspaper wrotethat thousands of British flights were subject to GPS jamming. It is assumed that Russia did this. Ryanair reported interference in the airspace of the Baltic region countries on more than 2,300 of its flights, Wizz Air on almost 1,400, British Airways on 82, and EasyJet on four.

GPS disruptions have become more frequent since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Airlines report about a large number of incidents in the Baltic Sea area, especially over the Kaliningrad region, as well as over the Black and Caspian Seas and in the eastern Mediterranean.