Moscow and Bishkek agreed on rare freedom for airlines

Russia has seriously expanded air traffic with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, as follows from the protocols published on the website of the Federal Air Transport Agency. From September 12, Russian carriers (which ones are not specified) received the right to fly from Russian cities to the Kyrgyz cities of Bishkek, Osh, Tamchi (located next to Lake Issyk-Kul) with an intermediate landing in Almaty (Kazakhstan), and then to one of cities of China, with the exception of Beijing, Urumqi and Tianjin, follows from the documents.

Kyrgyz airlines, in turn, will be able to fly from airports in their country to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Krasnodar and other cities with an intermediate landing in third countries (in agreement with the Russian authorities), as well as with subsequent departure from Russia to points in third countries.

It follows from the protocols that we are talking about the introduction of the fifth freedom of air, which allows flights from Russia to third countries through Kyrgyzstan and, conversely, from Kyrgyzstan through Russia to third countries. But such flights – under the fifth freedom – through Moscow or Bishkek are limited to 10 flights per week for each party to the agreement.

Fifth freedom of air is an infrequent experiment for Russia. The airports of Vladivostok (since 2012), Sochi (since 2014), Kaliningrad (since 2021) and Ulan-Ude (since 2017) received this regime. But this did not have a significant effect on passenger traffic. For the fifth freedom, it is also necessary to agree on third countries where airlines will fly next after the first landing. Aviation authorities of states with strong national carriers rarely agree to this.