Three airlines suspend flights to Russian cities after Kazakhstan plane crash

APA reported the information.

Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) has suspended flights from Baku to several Russian airports starting December 28, including Mineralnye Vody, Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa, Samara, Grozny, and Makhachkala.

Earlier, The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli airline El Al announced the suspension of flights on the Tel Aviv-Moscow route for at least one week "due to events in Russian airspace."

Next week, the company will reassess the situation to decide whether to resume flights on this route.

Kazakh airline Qazaq Air announced the suspension of flights to Russia on the Astana-Yekaterinburg route until January 27 of the next year.

“Qazaq Air has been forced to temporarily suspend flights on the Astana-Yekaterinburg route from December 28 this year to January 27, 2025,” the airline's press service announced.

The suspension of flights was made to ensure the safety of passengers and crew following a risk assessment of flights to Russia, which is conducted regularly.

"The airline will continue operating flights to Omsk and Novosibirsk, which currently meet Qazaq Air's risk assessment criteria. The resumption of flights to Yekaterinburg will be determined following a re-evaluation of the risks," the company stated.

• On the morning of December 25, a passenger plane crashed in Aktau, Kazakhstan. It was en route from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the Russian city of Grozny. The crash resulted in the deaths of 38 people. The Central Defense Command stated that the aircraft was hit by a Russian surface-to-air missile system.
• Sources in the Azerbaijani government reported that preliminary investigation data indicated the cause of the passenger plane crash was a Russian surface-to-air missile, and the pilots were not allowed to land in Russia.
• Kazakhstan's Minister of Transport Marat Karabaev stated that an oxygen tank exploded on board the Azerbaijan Airlines plane.