Ministry develops schedule of return flights for Wed–Apr 13

MOSCOW/NEW YORK/YEKATERINBURG, Apr 8 (PRIME) -- The Transport Ministry has developed a schedule of return flights from New York, Tokyo, Goa, and other places in the period for Wednesday–April 13, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Two Aeroflot flights were scheduled from New York and Male to Moscow for April 8. On April 9, Aeroflot may bring back Russians from Denpasar. The flights of Aeroflot from Thailand to Moscow and St. Petersburg were scheduled for April 10, and the airline may deliver Russians from Larnaca to these cities as well,” the statement read.

S7 Airlines will fly from Bangkok to Novosibirsk and Irkutsk on April 10, and from Tokyo to Vladivostok. Return flights from Bangkok may continue on April 11.

“An Aeroflot flight is planned to Moscow and St. Petersburg. A flight from Antalya to Moscow is possible. Ural Airlines may bring Russians to Krasnoyarsk, Kazan, and Ufa. Preliminary plans for April 12 and April 13 include Aeroflot flights from Madrid, Tokyo, Podgorica, and Goa to Moscow,” the ministry said.

The amount of Russians that registered for the return flights over the coronavirus pandemic stands at about 25,800. Only the Russians who left the country after January 1 and registered on the state services web portal Gosuslugi are eligible for the return flights, the ministry said.

The Federal Air Transport Agency said in a statement that the authorities may develop a schedule of return flights from Thailand, India, Japan, Cyprus, Spain, Turkey, and Montenegro in a few coming days. A plane will fly Russians from a country to only one Russian city or region.

“The passengers of a return flight should live densely in this region. It will allow us to create necessary conditions aimed at prevention of the COVID-19 spread,” the agency said.

FLIGHTS

According to monitoring service flightradar24.com, an Aeroflot plane with Russians on board already took off from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, and is flying to Moscow.

But Ural Airlines cancelled all flights from India as the Federal Air Transport Agency cancelled the permits due to changes in the order of registration for these flights.

Italy’s embassy in Moscow said on its Facebook page that airline NEOS will fly a charter plane from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport to Rome on Friday to fly Italians back home. The plane will also make a connection landing in St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport before flying to Italy.

Yuliya Spivakova, press secretary of Aeroflot, told reporters late on Tuesday that the company has a flat tariff for all return flights to Russia of 400 euros for long-distance one-way flights and 200 euros for medium-distance one-way flights including all fees and collections. Each passenger has a right to carry one piece of luggage and one piece of carry-on luggage, she said.

The Transport Ministry also said that all Russians that want to fly back home but have tickets of foreign airlines will have to pay 200–400 euros more to get a ticket of a Russian airline, while a flight for people with tickets of any Russian airlines will be free and the national airlines will carry out setoffs later.

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