Russia provides Air Astana with route to fly around Ukrainian fighting zones

Photo © Air Astana press office

Russian aviation authorities have issued a permit to Kazakhstan’s Air Astana airlines to fly to Kiev bypassing the Ukrainian battle zones, Tengrinews reports citing the press office of the Kazakh airline company.

“According to a flight plan approved by the Main Air Traffic Management Centre of Russia, flights to Ukraine now pass through the northern route,” Air Astana representative told Tengrinews.

After the crash of the Malaysian Airlines MH-17 hit by a missile, Kazakhstani airlines companies cancelled their flights to Kiev. Kazakhstani SCAT air carrier suspended its Aktau-Kiev flights even before that - back in February - and has not resumed the flights ever since.

Air Astana announced that the cancelled flights would be resumed only if Russia permitted use of its northern route that bypasses the battlegrounds. However, despite its announcement, the airline company made a flight to Kiev before obtaining the new route permission from Russia.

The Malaysian Airlines airplane crashed in Ukraine in the evening of July 17 claiming 298 lives. The MH17 flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was hit in Donetsk, Ukraine.

Reporting by Roza Yessenkulova, writing by Gyuzel Kamalova, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina