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Several planes cannot take off Tomsk airport because of smoke

According to meteorologists, the weather will remain abnormally hot

MOSCOW, July 30 (Itar-Tass) — The airport of Tomsk functions nominally, the regional emergency department told Itar-Tass on Monday.

“There is no smoke in Tomsk. The weather is normal. The airport functions nominally,” an official of the emergency department said.

In the beginning of last week the work of the airport has been paralysed by the smoke. On July 28 the airport resumes functioning.

At the same time, officials at the airport said several planes could not take off because of the smoke. “Due to the weather several flights are delaying at the airport of Strezhenoy and Nizhnevartovsk,” the official said.

Earlier, the Association of Tour Operators’ press service reported that Russian tourists from Siberia could hardly leave for the holiday destinations: the work of one of the largest airports has been paralysed because of the think smoke caused by forest fires, According to the press service, Tomsk’s airport of Bogashevo suspends its work: the smoke caused by the forest fire prevents planes from making a landing and taking off.

“The area of forests, which were embraced by the fire near Tomsk, exceeded 7,800 hectares. The fire is closing the city: it is 60 kilometres from the city. The think smoke has hampered the normal activity of the airport since the beginning of the week,” ATOR said. “On July 25, several planes, including an Aeroflot aircraft from Moscow, can make a landing in the airport of Bogashevo. Local flights were cancelled. Passengers who should have arrived in Tomsk by air were transported by buses,” ATOR said.

On July 27, at least nine flights were cancelled. Many airlines changed the airport: planes were directed at Kemerovo and Novosibirsk. Then passengers will go to Tomsk by bus.

According to meteorologists, the weather will remain abnormally hot. There will be no rains and the temperature will be plus 35 degrees Celsius. The weather in European Russia will be also hot, but no forest fires are being predicted yet.