MOSCOW, July 10. /TASS/. The restart of Gelendzhik Airport operations will not influence the passenger traffic of Russian airlines, aviation industry experts told TASS.

The passenger traffic will simply be redistributed a bit from other destinations, FrequentFlyers.ru portal founder Ilya Shatilin said. "Airlines do not have the spare capacity standing and waiting for these three flights per day, while these three flights per day mean ninety flights per month, so, notionally, 27,000 people per month in the high season that will last for two months. This is within the margin of error amid the annual transportation volume," he noted.

Opening of the Gelendzhik Airport, the smallest one on the Russian Black Sea coast, will not significantly influence the airlines’ passenger traffic, Executive Director of the Aviaport industry agency Oleg Panteleev noted. "Carriers will have to reallocate the throughput capacity for the new destination, taking it from other lines. Furthermore, due to specificities driven by flight safety requirements, flights to Gelendzhik will be not along the shortest routes but with airspace sections with the significant area to be circumvented in flights," he noted.

The trend of southern airports’ opening is a positive signal for the industry, Panteleev said.

The Gelendzhik Airport closed in February 2022 is ready for civilian airplane arrivals and departures from July 10, the Russian air regulator said earlier. Restrictions continue to be in effect for airports of Anapa, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Krasnodar, Kursk, Lipetsk, Rostov-on-Don and Simferopol.