The Federal Air Transport Agency of Russia (Rosaviatsiya) has once again expanded the ban on flight to several airports in central and southern Russia due to safety concerns amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
According to a report by Russian news agency Interfax, published on May 30, 2022, Rosaviatsiya extended the ban for airlines operating flights to and from 11 airports: Anapa (AAQ), Belgorod (EGO), Bryansk (BZK), Voronezh (VOZ), Gelendzhik (GDZ), Krasnodar (KRR), Kursk (URS), Lipetsk (LPK), Rostov-on-Don (RVI), Simferopol (SIP) and Elista (ESL). These airports will remain closed until June 6, 2022.
Meanwhile, all other airports across Russia will operate without restrictions, Rosaviatsiya confirmed to Interfax.
“The regime of temporary restriction on flights to 11 Russian airports has been prolonged until 3:45 a.m. Moscow time on June 6, 2022,” Interfax cited Rosaviatsiya as saying in a statement.
Local airlines are advised to redirect flights to five alternative airports – Sochi (AER), Volgograd (VOG), Mineralnye Vody (MRV), Stavropol (STW), and Moscow (DME).
This is the eighth time that Rosaviatsiya has extended the temporary flight ban on domestic services across the listed Russian airports. Flight restrictions were initially implemented on February 24, 2022, when Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
Thousands of airport workers have been furloughed as Russian aviation continues to face a significant decline in passenger traffic as well as a decrease in both production capacity and human resources as a result of Western sanctions imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
Russian air carriers can only operate domestic passenger services and offer outbound services to a few countries that have not imposed sanctions on the country.