Azur Air will fly from Russia to Egypt in the next week instead of Southwind – Kommersant
[ad_1]
Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) reportedthat in the coming week Azur Air will operate flights from Russia to Egypt instead of Southwind Airlines. On March 29, the European Union banned Southwind from flying over EU countries, citing the airline’s connection with Russia.
ATOR reports that Azur Air carried out its first flights from Moscow to Egypt today, March 30. Tourists who were supposed to return from Egypt to the Russian Federation on Southwind flights will also use the services of Azur Air. The airline emphasized that we are talking about additional flights for clients of tour operators PEGAS Touristik and Coral Travel. The load on Azur Air’s own flights from Moscow to Sharm el-Sheikh is good, there is no talk of combining them, ATOR reports.
General Director of PEGAS Touristik Anna Podgornaya told the association that the flight schedule to Egypt will be specified later. She drew the attention of tourists to the fact that Azur Air operates flights from Vnukovo, and not from Sheremetyevo, as Southwind did.
Southwind Airlines is based in Antalya, Turkey. The airline’s flights were launched in July 2022 to transport Russians. In December 2023, the German publication Bild wrote about the carrier’s ties with Russia. Then a company representative said that there were no Russians in the management of Southwind, and all aircraft were registered in Turkey.
On March 29, it became known that the EU had banned Southwind from flying in the airspace of the EU countries due to sanctions imposed in connection with Russia’s actions in Ukraine. On March 25, the Finnish transport and communications agency Traficom introduced similar restrictions on the airline, justifying them by the fact that the majority of Southwind’s ownership belongs not to Turkish, but to Russian structures.
Due to the restrictions imposed, Russian tourists who were supposed to fly from Egypt to Russia on a Southwind flight on March 29 were stuck in Sharm el-Sheikh. Later they flew out to Moscow via Turkey, Georgia and Kazakhstan.
[ad_2]
Source link
