YEKATERINBURG, July 9. /TASS/. The air traffic between Russia and CIS countries may be resumed in August, President of the Russian Travel Industry Union Andrei Ignatyev said on Thursday at a press conference in the TASS’ Ural Regional Information Center.

"International flights will probably start sometime in August. Most probably, these will be CIS countries," he said.

Russia completely closed the international air service since March 27.

Tourism industry’s losses due to the pandemic amounted to about 1.5 trillion rubles ($21.2 bln) and it will take at least 18 months for the industry to recover, Ignatyev added.