Extended permits for flights abroad under the conditions of air sanctions imply a very limited range – mainly, these are the countries of the post-Soviet space. However, tourists are developing them as an intermediate point for routes to the “real” abroad, as well as for specific sanctioned tours – like tours for working cards of international payment systems. So, permits for routes to such countries as Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Belarus are not without interest for the current state of the tourist industry.
Let's imagine the permits recently issued by the Federal Air Transport Agency to airlines, by country in detail.
- Utair airline has received permission to enter Azerbaijan. We are talking about regional flights to Baku – from Sochi, Grozny, Krasnodar, Makhachkala and Mineralnye Vody. It should be noted that the air carrier is already flying to Baku from Moscow, Aeroflot and IrAero also fly.
- Permission has also been issued to Armenia for Utair – however, not for new routes, but for expanding the old ones. The carrier will be able to increase the number of flights on the route to Yerevan from Moscow up to 21 times a week, and from Sochi and Krasnodar – up to 7 times. “Expanded” the permitted number of flights to Yerevan from Moscow and for the Rossiya airline to 21 per week, and from the new hub in Sochi to 14 per week. Nordwind has been issued permits for flights to Yerevan from Tyumen, Surgut, Novosibirsk.
- “Victory” was “allowed” to Belarus – on the route to Minks from St. Petersburg 7 times a week.
- UVT Aero received a permit to Kyrgyzstan.
- A permit was issued to Turkmenistan ” Ural Airlines. We are talking about flights to Turkmenistan from Yekaterinburg, Zhukovsky and Moscow.
- Uzbekistan has received a significant number of permits. Yamal received permission to fly to Namangan from Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk and Tyumen, as well as to Bukhara from Tyumen, Moscow, to Urgench from Moscow, Tyumen and Krasnodar. The carrier also has access to flights to Navoi from Moscow, Krasnodar and to Karshi from Tyumen and Moscow. Rossiya received permits for flights to Bukhara and Urgench from Moscow. “AVT Aero” permits for flights to Namangan and Samarkand from Kazan and Nizhnekamsk. Azimuth Airline received permission to fly to Fergana from Mineralnye Vody.
If we talk about the “real” abroad, the permissions obtained here look mostly doubtful. Most of the announced countries are still closed – either by covid or air sanctions. On paper it looks like this:
- The Red Wings airline has received admissions to China. We are talking about flights to Harbin from Khabarovsk and Vladivostok. However, China is still “tightly” closed by pandemic restrictions.
- Red Wings also received flights to South Korea – we are talking about routes from Vladivostok to Busan (South Korea). IrAero increased the frequency of its flights to Seoul from Vladivostok to 7 per week. But the actual implementation of these flights is questionable “for political reasons.”
- Ural Airlines has obtained permission to fly to Oman on a direct Moscow-Muscat flight. So far, there are no direct routes either.
- To Estonia, closed by European air sanctions, I received AVT Aero permission.
- To Japan, namely to Osaka from Khabarovsk, I got permission from a/c Red Wings. But the country demonstrates a combination of bans – both on the coronavirus and in connection with the sanctions.
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