Belavia carried out its last flight to Ukraine on May 25, and from May 26, restrictions on air traffic with Belarus came into force. This can significantly affect the price of tickets to Russia.
After the cancellation of flights between Ukraine and Russia, the main route to Moscow was via Minsk. In general, the flight time to Moscow with a transfer in Belarus lasted no more than three hours, avianews reports.
The Moldovan company Air Moldova, the Polish LOT, and the Latvian airBaltic also tried to occupy the niche of flights between Ukraine and Russia. However, they could not compete with Belavia in terms of flight duration.
Now companies have the opportunity to occupy this niche. For instance, the shortest route will be via Chisinau. However, Air Moldova does not fly to Kyiv so far.
At the same time, a LOT airlines flight via Warsaw or airBaltic via Riga is twice as long as the route via Belarus. This means that airlines will spend twice as much, and that will lead to an increase in ticket cost.
Another option for a flight to Russia is via Istanbul. However, the Kyiv-Istanbul-Moscow route with Turkish Airlines is 2.5 times longer than the route via Minsk and four times longer than the direct flight. In particular, now air traffic between Russia and Turkey is limited to two flights a week. This will also raise the cost of flights.
At the same time, UIA will resume flights from Kyiv to Warsaw from June 18. Flights will be operated on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.
In particular, UIA noted that they do not plan to cancel flights because of flying past Belarus. Moreover, the cost of tickets will not rise either, even due to the increase in flight time.
Context. On May 23, a Ryanair plane heading from Athens to Vilnius was urgently landed in Minsk. But the former editor of the main opposition Telegram channel NEXTA and the today’s Telegram channel Belarus of the Brain, Roman Protasevich was on board the plane. He was detained after the plane had landed.
Moreover, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko signed a number of laws that restrict the work of the media in the country.
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