Flydubai halts flights to Russia indefinitely
Dhaka: flydubai has announced that the suspension of its Russian services will continue indefinitely.
In late February, the Emirati carrier briefly halted services to Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don in Southern Russia, coinciding with the suspension of services to Ukraine and Belarus. However, the airline has now confirmed that services will remain suspended until further notice.
flydubai said, “We are in touch with our passengers regarding their refund and rebooking options. It might open up tomorrow, or take longer, it really depends on the situation itself.”
As most international carriers have pulled Russian services, the only major airlines still operating flights into the country are Emirates, Qatar, Etihad, Turkish Airlines, and Air Serbia.
Turkish Airlines has suspended flights to Rostov-on-Don and Sochi, though it still operates four daily flights between Istanbul and Moscow and two between Istanbul and St Petersburg. Turkish low-cost carrier, Pegasus Airlines, has halted its Russian-bound services until March 27 due to “operational risks” brought on by European Union sanctions.
Air Serbia has notably experienced higher demand on flights between the capital city, Belgrade, and Moscow, adding additional flights to cover the capacity. Aviation data analysts, ForwardKeys, have noted that Air Serbia’s capacity increased by 50% during the first week of March. Vice President of Insights Olivier Ponti has said;
ForwardKeys has also reported a 60 per cent increase in Russian tickets sales for onward travel from Serbia in the week following the invasion of Ukraine, compared to January as a whole.
A notable recent suspension comes from Air Astana, who suspended all flights between Kazakhstan and Russia on March 11. The carrier has rerouted its European-bound services out of Russian airspace due to intervention from insurers.
Russia has indefinitely suspended all international services, bar Belarus, due to a combination of airspace restrictions and seizures of leased aircraft at foreign airports. Roughly 24 jets were impounded before airlines ordered them back to Russia, preventing repossession from lessors.
On March 13, the Bermudan Civil Aviation Authority stripped all Russian-operated jets on its register of Certificates of Airworthiness, limiting their usage to inside Russian airspace.
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