Austrian Airlines Not Planning To Cancel Flights To Russia

12.11.2009 — News

THE SVERDLOVSK OBLAST.

There are no plans to cancel Austrian Airlines' Vienna - Ekaterinburg - Vienna flight. At the same time according to the data from the Russian Ministry for Transport the Austrian carrier works in Russia in accordance with a temporary permit that expires on 1 December 2009. 

Austrian Airlines runs flights from Vienna to 8 cities in Russia (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Sochi, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar, and Krasnoyarsk) on the basis of Russian-Austrian intergovernmental agreement on air traffic. This legal foundation has disappeared when European Commission approved Austrian Airlines being purchased by the German Lufthansa in September 2009. The Russian Ministry reckons that if the dominating Austrian ownership of Austrian Airlines is not proven then the Austrian party may appoint any other air carrier for the implementation of the agreement.

The Ekaterinburg representation of Austrian Airlines informed RusBusinessNews that the carrier did and still does run three flights a week to the capital of the Urals. "No change is planned for time after November, tickets are sold for all flights both for the end of 2009 and 2010," Yelena Chizhik, the company's representative, pointed out.