Flights from Russia to Turkey’s Istanbul and Ankara will resume on Aug. 1, and more holiday destinations in Turkey will be added starting Aug. 10, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoğlu said Monday.
According to the statement by the minister, flights will be conducted from Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Rostov-on-Don to Turkey’s biggest city Istanbul and the capital Ankara in the initial stage.
Charter flights to Turkey’s holiday destinations Antalya, Bodrum and Dalaman will resume on Aug. 10, the minister said.
Karaismailoğlu noted that Russia required all arriving passengers to provide negative COVID-19 test results before boarding and that such tests should be conducted within three days of travel.
Those who fail to take the test prior to boarding will be tested within three days upon their arrival to Russia.
The minister said flights to India, Kuwait and South Africa will also resume on Aug. 1 and that Turkey was working to expand the list each week.
“Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Iraq, Kenya and Uzbekistan are among the other countries where flights could be resumed, depending on the course of the outbreak,” Karaismailoğlu said.
Along with Turkey, Russia decided to resume flights to Tanzania and the United Kingdom and the list will be expanded with new updates, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said last week.
International flights were grounded on March 30 after the imposition of lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, which has infected more than 800,000 people in Russia.
