Russian airlines have begun selling tickets for the coming days from the Middle East to Russia — for passengers who are ready to fly earlier than originally planned, the Ministry of Transport reported. Carriers expect to complete the entire flight schedule by the end of this week — the program was previously scheduled to be completed on March 14.
From March 2 to 5, Russian and foreign airlines operated 105 flights, carrying about 21,000 passengers from the UAE and Oman. Of these, 97 flights were operated from UAE airports — to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Mineralnye Vody, Makhachkala, Kazan and Krasnodar, and 8 more from Oman.
Airlines manage to operate more flights per day than planned: on March 5, 41 flights took place instead of the planned 37, 8,600 passengers were transported instead of 8,000. 34 departures with 7,700 passengers are planned for March 6.
The airspace of six states — Bahrain, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Qatar and Kuwait — remains closed. Russian airlines are recommended to extend the cancellation of flights to and from Israel until March 20. The recommendation to suspend ticket sales from Russia to Bahrain, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Qatar and the UAE is valid until March 14.