TASS, citing a source at one of the airlines, reported that Russian airlines will be able to operate “straight” flights to Sochi from 30 August over part of the closed airspace in the south of the country.
“There will be a meeting-statement on flights for the airlines on Monday,” the source said.
He said that after “flattening” the route, the flight time would be reduced by about 30-35 minutes. Authorities may then decide to “fix” flights to other cities.
At the same time, the RBC publication, citing a source, stated that at peak times, one would have to fly over Kazakhstan as there weren’t many tiers for planes to follow.
The day before, the publication reported that authorities are planning to consider the possibility of using part of the airspace in the south of the country with civilian aircraft. It was noted that the decision will reduce the flight time from Vnukovo to Sochi airport by more than 20 minutes and the return time by 10 minutes.
Tourdom.ru tourism portal reports that due to the opening of the airspace, Moscow or St. He wrote that the flight time from St. Petersburg to Turkey will decrease in the same way as Sochi.
According to a telegram from the Federal Air Transport Agency, which is at the disposal of Tourdom.ru, the planes will be able to move through Volgograd and Astrakhan. if the flight altitude is more than 10 thousand meters. Now the trajectory of the movement in this section passes over Kazakhstan.
airspace closure
Since February 24, Russia has closed part of its airspace to civilian aircraft in the southern and central parts of the country on the ground of military operations in Ukraine.
Flight restrictions have affected the airports of Anapa, Gelendzhik, Simferopol, Krasnodar, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk, Lipetsk, Rostov-on-Don and Elista.
Sochi Airport did not suspend its work due to the closure of the airspace in the neighboring regions. travel time increased from two and a half hours to four hours. On 26 August, the flight restriction regime was extended until 4 September.
Airport Support
To support closed airports, the authorities previously allocated 3.1 billion rubles to them, and in mid-August, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin promised to increase state support by another 2.5 billion rubles. In addition, the state will cover the costs of air carriers 19.5 billion rubles for refunding passengers for flights canceled since the beginning of the military operation.
The largest amount was allocated to Simferopol airport – 436 million rubles, Rostov-on-Don airport received 296.6 million rubles, Krasnodar – 259.2 million rubles and Anapa – 111.8 million rubles. The rest of the airports received from 4 to 72.9 million rubles, depending on the lost passenger traffic.
During the summer, airports lost more than 8 million passengers, according to the Russian Association of Tour Operators. In the presentation of the Ministry of Transport quoted by the Vedomosti newspaper, it is stated that the airlines will lose 19 million passengers in 2022 due to the closed airports in the south.
The Ministry of Transport and the Federal Air Transport Authority, together with relevant organizations, began the preparation of a draft resolution on supporting airports in the face of sanctions and airspace closures. It is assumed that airports will be assisted with loans and reimbursed for the costs of their core operations.
But at the end of July, Vedomosti reported that the Ministry of Finance did not agree on a project proposed by the Ministry of Transport and the Federal Air Transport Agency to allocate a subsidy of 10 billion rubles to airports. As the broadcast source suggests, the Ministry of Finance has studied the airports’ reports and may conclude that airports are “not so bad” so far and suspend this project.