Russia lifts ban on charter flights to Turkey

Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed an order to lift the ban for chartered flights between Russia and Turkey. The document is published on the government's website, TASS reports.

The document also reads the air companies serving chartered flights between Russia and Turkey should provide additional security measures.

The ban for chartered flights between Russia and Turkey is off, press service of the Ministry of Transport said on Sunday.

"Rosaviatsiya has sent notifications to Russian air companies and informed the system of managing air traffic," the press service reported statement by Minister Maxim Sokolov. "Thus, Russian air authorities ready to provide necessary conditions for serving chartered flights to Turkey, including issue of permissions to Russian air companies.".

Russia’s air communication with Turkey has been closed since late October 2015 after a Turkish fighter jet shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber, which was on an anti-terror mission over the Syrian skies. In response, Russia imposed a number of restrictions on goods and services from Turkey.

In August 2016, after the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan brought his apologies for the downed Russian bomber and after the talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin, both sides made a decision to start restoring bilateral relations. After the study of security issues at Turkish airports, the Russian Transport ministry’s experts sent a relevant report to the government, TASS writes.