There are no direct flights from the
Chechen republic to Western Europe at the moment – local airline, Grozny Avia,
doesn't comply with EU flight standards, demanded from carriers. The airline
only conducts regular flights from the Chechen capital Grozny
to Moscow and the southern city of Stavropol. From time to
time the carrier also conducts flights to a number of other Russian cities, as
well as to Turkey, Kazakhstan, UAE and Saudi Arabia. Grozny Avia began
operating in 2008 and uses four Yak-42 aircraft.
But according to a representative of Grozny airport, its management has offered another
carrier, UTair, to look into conducting flights from the Chechen capital to
several western European countries, including Germany,
France, Italy and Belgium. A similar offer has also
been made to the RusLain carrier, which conducts flights to Grozny
from Moscow and St. Petersburg using Canadian-made mid-range
aircraft – Bombardier CRJ 200.
UTair's director general Andrey Martirosov
has confirmed, the company is currently studying the offer. He said, the
carrier already began flights to Grozny from Surgut earlier this year,
however, he restrained from any detailed comments.
Experts doubt, direct flights from Grozny to EU nations will
begin any time soon. According to the editor-in-chief of AviaPort agency, Oleg
Panteleyev, such flights won't be very attractive from the aspect of the
potential passenger flow. The analysts claims, it's much wiser to conduct
flights with a stop in Moscow,
saying, it's an ordinary practice.
According to the Russian Tour Industry
Union's press secretary, Irina Tyurina, tourism is the only way for Chechnya and the entire Northern
Caucasus to develop. However, «tourism can't exist separately from
the general situation in the North Caucasus,
which can't really be called pleasant», - she says.
In any case, experts claim, there shouldn't
be any problems from the aspect of flight security. Grozny
airport complies with the same aviation safety norms (including anti-terror) as
all other airports in Russia,
says Oleg Panteleyev.