The Russian Ministry of Transport has decided to authorize the airline companies Ural Airlines and Grozny Avia to operate international flights from Simferopol, a source in the ministry told the Izvestia publication. The first flights are expected in August, izvestia.ru reports.
The Chechen Republic’s airline company Grozny Avia has been designated as the carrier from Simferopol to Istanbul, Antalya, and Yerevan (Armenia). The application of Sergey Skuratov’s Ural Airlines was also approved in full: it will operate flights to Yerevan, Khujand (Tajikistan), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), and Baku (Azerbaijan).
The press service of the Ministry of Transport confirmed that the ministry’s deputy head Valery Okulov chaired a meeting and that a decision was made. Officials at the ministry declined to make detailed comments.
The government of Russia approved the opening of the Simferopol airport to international flights in early June. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed the relevant order.
“The Chechen Republic’s Grozny Avia airline company has extensive experience in operating international flights, and it has a reliable fleet of aircraft,” the Chechen Republic’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov told Izvestia. “The airline employs highly skilled aviation specialists, and the level of training of the Grozny Avia airline company’s crews is undoubtedly high. I am convinced that residents of the Republic of Crimea will like to fly on the Grozny Avia airlines’ airplanes. For our airline company, the most important thing is not so much profit as flight safety and a desire to provide assistance to the new subjects of the Russian Federation.”
“We plan to start the first flights in August,” said Grozny Avia’s General Director Hassan Salgiriyev. “By that time, we need to resolve a number of technical issues that all airline companies usually resolve when launching new international routes: approval of air fares, a timetable, and the terms of service at destination airports. We plan to operate regular air services on the routes provided to us at least 2-3 times a week in each direction. We also plan to increase the frequency of these flights as required, i.e. as these routes are rolled out. We will operate Yak-42 airplanes, which the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) has authorized for operation of flights, on the routes that are being reopened.
