KIEV, August 08. /ITAR-TASS/. One of the Ukrainian largest air carriers announced on Friday alteration of its flight routes following Russia’s air space transit ban for Ukrainian airlines making flights to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Turkey.

The Russian government’s decision to close airspace for Ukrainian flights to the mentioned-above countries was announced on Thursday by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

The Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) stated on Friday that it decided to alternate its flight routes to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, and the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

The UIA’s press service reported that the alterations increased the time of flights, volume of fuel consumption and upped other costs connected with flight operations.

The Federal Air Transportation Service said on Thursday that Russia’s air transit ban would affect four Ukrainian airlines, namely YANAIR, Wizz Air Ukraine (Ukrainian branch of the Hungarian airline Wizz Air), Dnepravia and the UIA.

The UIA was established in 1992 and provides flights connecting Ukraine capital cities and key hubs in Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Middle East, Asia, Africa and the United States. In all, it operates flights to a total of over 3,000 destinations across the globe, according to the airline’s website.