Israel, Türkiye and the UAE: Which countries will be the first to break through the air blockade of Crimea
The new Simferopol airport terminal, scheduled to open by summer 2018, will be ready to handle international flights. Airport CEO Yevgeny Plaksin stated this in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, according to a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to him, today Turkey, Israel and the United Arab Emirates are actively interested in the Crimean direction. The only question is whether the parties will be able to reach an agreement at the political level and work out mechanisms for circumventing sanctions.
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“For my part, I can confirm the interest of carriers in flights to the Republic of Crimea. The potential is very great. These are both Turkish destinations and Israeli destinations. That is, these are the historical routes that previously flew to Crimea. Moreover, business and tourism potential are now great... The actual opening of these flights is a more political issue of agreement between the two parties on interaction,” Plaksin said.
He also did not rule out that Simferopol Airport could become a platform for the creation of a domestic airline, which will be based in Crimea. Under sanctions, this cannot be an airline that uses foreign aircraft in its fleet, so the first Russian medium-haul MS-21 aircraft can be based in Simferopol.
“We are looking forward to the moment when the first 100% domestic aircraft appears. I think this will be the starting point for bringing to life the idea of creating a base airline at Simferopol airport,” Plaksin said.
Israel, Turkey, and the UAE: Which countries will be the first to break the air blockade of Crimea?