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After a two-month pause, Russian flag-carrier Aeroflot resumed flights between Moscow and Delhi on Thursday. The flights had been cancelled as part of Russia’s international flights suspension in the context of the Ukraine war, but the country has begun resuming international flights on some sectors, including to India.
In a tweet, the Russian Embassy in India noted: “According to Aeroflot, the company resumes regular flights between Moscow & New Delhi starting from May 5, 2022. The airline will be operating its wide-bodied Airbus A330 aircraft from Moscow to Delhi every Thursday and Sunday, while the return leg will be operated on Monday and Friday.
Effective March 8, Aeroflot cancelled all of its international connections, except Minsk in Belarus, on account of the restrictions imposed by Europe and American nations on Russia, which included constraints on use of airspace and economic sanctions. One aspect of the economic sanctions was that European aircraft leasing companies began terminating contracts with Russian airlines and started seeking recovery of their aircraft.
According to a report in The Irish Times, 700 aircraft have been leased to Russian airlines, with more than 200 leased by Irish companies.
Aeroflot cancelling international flights was deemed as Russia moving to prevent the leasing companies from taking recovery of their aircraft, particularly given that the Kremlin had signalled retaliation against European sanctions.
Even as Aeroflot resumes India operations, most of its flights to the West remain suspended given the sanctions by western countries. However, some foreign flights from Russia have resumed.
According to information sourced from flight tracking portal Flightradar24, last month, Aeroflot group airline Rossiya started flights from Sochi to Istanbul. Effective Friday, Aeroflot is planning to resume its connection between Moscow and Istanbul.
Similarly, Aeroflot has been operating flights between Moscow and Colombo since April.
On April 27, the airline resumed flights to Tehran, in addition to operating flights to some former USSR countries like Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, that it had earlier suspended.
