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Anti-Russian sanctions

Russia’s lowcoster air carrier to apply for flights to Ukraine — source

Russia’s biggest air carrier, Aeroflot, along with 20 more Russian air companies were blacklisted by the Ukrainian authorities

© Alexei Kopayev/TASS

MOSCOW, October 20. /TASS/. Russia’s Pobeda budget carrier will apply for the right to conduct flights to Ukrainian capital of Kiev and the city of Odessa, a source in the aviation industry familiar with the situation told TASS on Tuesday.

"The Pobeda airline will submit a request for flying to Kiev and Odessa at the next the interdepartmental commission of the Transport Ministry, which is scheduled for late October. In the near future the aviation authorities of Russia and Ukraine will hold talks, which may result in a compromise on admitting at least one carrier from each side [for flights to Russia and Ukraine respectively - TASS], but it is expected that there will be 2-3 airlines from each side," the source said.

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In late September, Ukraine banned all flights to the country by Russian air companies from October 25, 2015. Apart from that, Ukraine has banned Russian air companies’ transit flights via Ukraine if they carry goods of defense or dual purpose or Russian manpower.

Russia’s biggest air carrier, Aeroflot, along with 20 more Russian air companies were blacklisted by the Ukrainian authorities. These companies were banned, partially or completely, to make flight to destinations in Ukraine or via Ukraine. The sanction list includes Aeroflot subsidiearies Rossiya, Donavia, Orenburg Airlines and Transaero, as well as S7 (Sibir, Russia’s third air carrier in terms of passenger traffic) and Urals Airlines (ranked fifth).

The blacklist also features such air companies Globus, Vim Avia, Kogalymavia, Gazpromavia and Red Wings, all ranked among Russia’s top 30.

Russia, in turn, imposed a similar ban on Ukrainian air companies.

Pobeda was set up by Aeroflot Group in the end of 2014 to operate passenger service in the low-cost segment.

In 2015 the air carrier plans to serve up to 2.8 million-3.2 million passengers, by 2018 - to expand its fleet to 40 aircraft and passenger traffic - to 10 million in order to become one of Russia's Top-5 air carriers.

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