A Finnair ATR 72-500 plane takes off from Vilnius international airport, Lithuania September 6, 2022. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Finnair is pausing flights to Tartu in eastern Estonia for one month due to GPS disturbances in the area, the Finnish airline said on Monday.
GPS jamming and spoofing have grown worse in Eastern Europe, the Black Sea and the Middle East, according to industry group OpsGroup. GPS is a growing part of aviation replacing radio beams used to guide planes towards landing.
Finnair said two flights last week had to divert back to Helsinki after GPS interference prevented the approach to Tartu.
"Finnair will suspend its daily flights to Tartu, Estonia, from April 29 to May 31, so that an alternative approach solution that does not require a GPS signal can be put in place at Tartu Airport," the airline said in a statement.
The Finnish carrier has reported GPS disruptions in the past. A spokesperson said the company doesn't know where the interference comes from.
"We don't have that information," she said.
Disturbances have increased since 2022, and Finnair pilots have reported interference especially near Kaliningrad, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean, the company said.
"Typically, GPS interference does not affect flight routes or flight safety, as pilots are well aware of it and aircraft have alternative systems in place that are used when the GPS signal is interfered with," it added.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm and Anne Kauranen in Helsinki, additional reporting by Joanna Plucinska, editing by Terje Solsvik and David Evans)
