Russia has officially resumed flights to Sri Lanka and several other countries, namely, Germany, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Syria on April 1, according to a decision made by the country’s anti-coronavirus crisis center last week.

The crisis center noted that regular flights would be resumed in a limited format. Most quotas have been allocated for routes to and from Germany: flights will depart from Moscow to Frankfurt am Main five times a week, from St. Petersburg to Frankfurt am Main - three times a week and from Moscow to Berlin - five times a week.

Furthermore, as many as two flights a week will operate from Moscow to Caracas. As for all other destinations, there is a quota of one flight per week between the capitals (except for Sri Lanka, where one can depart from Moscow to Colombo).

The frequency of flights from Moscow to Cuba will be increased from April 1 to seven flights a week, whereas a regular flight Kaliningrad - Minsk has been agreed for travellers to Belarus.

Airlines can now carry out one flight a week from Russia’s regions to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Meanwhile, the list of regions, from which international flights can be resumed, added 13 more cities: Barnaul, Belgorod, Volgograd, Voronezh, Kaluga, Krasnodar, Lipetsk, Nalchik, Orenburg, Saratov, Sochi, Tyumen and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

Not everyone eligible

Currently, no Russian company has officially announced plans to resume regular flights to these countries. However, according to Deputy Director of the Civil Aviation Agency under Tajikistan’s Government Aziz Nabizoda, regular flights will be launched between Dushanbe and Moscow from today, as operated by Tajikistan’s Somon Air and Russia’s Utair. Tajikistan’s borders are still closed for tourists though, with only citizens and diplomats being allowed to cross them. All visitors will need to undergo a 14-day quarantine.

The same goes for Germany that banned tourists from entering the country - only citizens of the EU or several other countries, which do not include Russia, will be allowed in. As for Russians, they can fly to Germany only on a work or educational visa with a residence permit.

Tourists will be also banned from entering Venezuela.

Uzbekistan, on the contrary, even canceled a mandatory express test for COVID-19 antibodies, requiring only a 72-hour PCR test. Currently, Uzbekistan is open for tourists as well as Sri Lanka.

Countries open for air travel

On August 1, there began a gradual lifting of restrictions on international flights. Russia’s government allowed to resume limited flights to the UK (they are now temporarily suspended again due to the epidemic situation), Tanzania and Turkey. Currently, flights have been resumed to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, India, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Greece, Singapore, Ethiopia, Qatar, Kyrgyzstan, South Korea, Egypt, the UAE, Turkey, Switzerland, Tanzania, Serbia, Finland, Japan, the Maldives, Cuba and Seychelles.

Source: TASS