PodcastTurkish Airlines suspends Russia flights
Turkish flag carrier Turkish Airlines have suspended flights to Russia following Moscow's decision to restrict flights to Turkey.
Duvar English
Starting April 15, Turkish flag carrier Turkish Airlines suspended flights service to Russia until June 1, mirroring a decision by Moscow.
The only exception to the suspension is twice-weekly service from Istanbul to Moscow and then back, said the carrier on April 14.
Russia said it will restrict flights to and from Turkey from April 15 to June 1 as new coronavirus infections rose to an all time high in Turkey, prompting fresh lockdown measures.
Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy and representatives of the tourism sector have said that the flight restrictions could cost Turkey 500,000 tourists.
Russia's decision to drastically cut the number of flights to Turkey, which is heavily reliant on revenue from tourism, was announced two days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Istanbul.
Erdoğan, alongside Zelenskiy, expressed his readiness to support a peaceful resolution to the conflict in breakaway pro-Moscow eastern regions in Ukraine, where tensions recently flared.
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