Kaliningrad airport hopes to attract airlines from Persian Gulf, Asia with open skies policy - CEO

KALININGRAD. Oct 4 (Interfax) - Kaliningrad's Khrabrovo Airport intends to attract airlines from the Persian Gulf and Asia with tits open skies policy, airport CEO Alexander Korytny told Interfax.

"The open skies regime of the Seventh Freedom of the Air established for Khrabrovo by the Federal Air Transport Agency as of October 1 opens up new opportunities for us to attract foreign airlines. Now we have an official document on this score. Using the unique geographical location of the airport, as well as various discounts on our services, we will more actively and persistently work on this issue with airlines [...] of the UAE, Qatar and other countries in Asia. We will foremost devote attention to carriers who currently fly to Russia," Korytny said.

He said such negotiations are already being held with Turkish Airlines, which operates charter flights to Khrabrovo five times a week. But the charter program will conclude in late November, and there might be demand for regular flights from Kaliningrad to Turkey, even if not so many, particularly since Turkish aircraft fly this route directly, through the European Union without any restrictions, Korytny said.

He recalled that Belavia also flies to Khrabrovo, but its flights go around the Baltic countries over the Baltic Sea.

The open skies policy that Russia's Air Transport Agency introduced at Khrabrovo Airport for two years as of October 1 allows foreign airlines to fly to and from Kaliningrad using the third, four, fifth and seventh "freedoms of the air." The Seventh Freedom of the Air allows an airline to fly passengers and cargo between two foreign countries without flying on to its own country.

Khrabrovo is one of Russia's 20 largest airports by passenger traffic. It saw traffic surge 80% to 3.9 million passengers in 2021. The airport terminals are owned by Roman Trotsenko's Novaport group.