Grozny to begin direct flights to Europe

Chechnya may soon open directair services to Europe, spokesman of the “Grozny” Air Company told Izvestia.

There is presently no direct air link between Grozny and Europe. The problem is that the Grozny Avia Company does not fulfill the aviation demands of the European Union. The local company organizes flights to Moscow and Stavropol. Charter flights are carried out to a set of Russian cities, Turkey, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia.

Grozny Avia started air service in mid-2008. It has four Yak-42s but needs at least 5 to meet the international norms. Planes need to be equipped with additional systems and instruments unnecessary for interior flights.

The Grozny Airport offered one of Russia’s largest air companies UTair to consider opening flight service from the Chechen capital to Germany, France, Italy and Belgium.

A similar proposal was made to another major air company – RusAir, one of the top 30 in terms of passenger flights. RusLine carries out flights from Moscow and Saint-Petersburg using Canadian Bombardier CRJ 200s.

None of the companies have decided on the issue, however, they have expressed their interest. They promised to respond in the near future.

UTair Director General Andrey Martirosov has confirmed that the company had received the requests. The company is studying it. He added that the company had started flights from Grozny to Surgut this year.
Experts have doubts on organization of direct air link between the Chechen capital and EU states in the near future. The companies will not profit from passenger flows, Oleg Panteleyev, Editor-in-Chief of the AviaPort Agency, comments on the issue. He did not give any more details.

On the other hand, there are other views. The local market is capacious, but air companies may as well make a flight per week, Irina Turina, press-secretary of the Russian Union of Tourism Industry, says. Grozny lacks foreign consulates that could issue visas, this requires people to visit other cities.

Turina says that Chechnya and the North Caucasus has only one prospect sphere for development – tourism. All efforts in the area are generally good, Turina continues, but efforts need to account of the situation in the North Caucasus.

In any case, there should be no problems with security of flights, experts say. The Grozny Airport has the same air security demands (protection from terrorism threats) as any other airports of the country, Oleg Panteleyev noted.

14.11.2011 / Author: Izvestia