First Russian plane lands in Gazipaşa after war
ANTALYA
A Russian airliner carrying 166 passengers and six crew members has landed at Gazipaşa-Alanya Airport in the southern province of Antalya for the first time since the beginning of the Ukraine war on Feb. 24.
The airline company used to carry out economy flights of the Russian Federation-owned Aeroflot group.
Due to the Russia-Ukraine war and the relevant recommendations of the Federal Air Transport Agency, the company completely suspended its international flights due to international sanctions.
The Russian airline, which started its international flights as of Dec. 1, made a flight to Gazipasa-Alanya Airport after a long break.
The plane, which took off from Moscow, the capital of Russia, at 1 p.m., landed at the airport in the southern province at 3:05 p.m.
The plane was greeted at the airport with a water salute, a ceremony held to celebrate the landing of an airplane at an airport for the first or after a long hiatus and for the last time.
The resumption of the flights has pleased the representatives of the tourism sector in the region, while it is learned that the flights will be carried out five days a week.
Moscow-Gazipaşa and Gazipaşa-Moscow flights will be operated on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Data from the provincial directorate of culture and tourism showed that Russians accounted for 23.5 percent of all foreign tourist arrivals in the first 11 months of the year.
Russian tourist arrivals increased by 6 percent on an annual basis to 4.6 million in the same period.
