Ural Airlines launching flights from Sochi to Istanbul on March 31

KRASNODAR. March 12 (Interfax) - Ural Airlines will operate direct scheduled flights on the Sochi - Istanbul - Sochi route starting March 31, the Sochi airport press service reported.

Flights are scheduled four times a week, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays and will continue through October 30.

Istanbul became the most popular international flight destination from Sochi Airport in 2023, with 2,250 flights on the route carrying over 380,000 people.

Ural Airlines will become the fifth carrier on the Sochi-Istanbul-Sochi route. Currently, flights to and from Sochi are operated by Rossiya (part of the Aeroflot group ), Azimut, IrAero and Red Wings.

Sochi is currently the only airport operating in Krasnodar Territory. Since February 2022, for security reasons, the airports of Anapa, Gelendzhik and Krasnodar, as well as airports in some other regions of Russia, have been closed. Sochi Airport, along with the airports of Krasnodar and Anapa, is part of the Aerodynamics group.

Passenger traffic at Sochi Airport reached 13.913 million people in 2023, a 7.6% increase over 2022.

Ural Airlines is based out of Moscow's Domodedovo and Yekaterinburg's Koltsovo airports. The airline's fleet consists of Airbus aircraft.