Flydubai, a United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based budget airline, has suspended flights from Dubai to two Russian cities—Sochi and Mineralnye Vody—starting December 28 to January 5, 2025, because of security concerns.
The announcement comes after Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8432 crashed near Aktau, killing 38 people and injuring 29 others on Wednesday, December 25, en route to Grozny, the Chechnya region’s capital.
In a statement on Friday, December 27, the Association of Russian Tour Operators said that the suspension will affects over 2,000 passengers, 90 percent of whom are clients of tour operators, the Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.
The tour operators are actively working to rectify the disruption, it added.
In addition, Kazakh airline ‘Qazaq Air’ has temporarily suspended flights between Astana and Yekaterinburg for a month. due to security concerns.
Following the suspension of flights from Baku to Grozy and Makhachkala on Wednesday, Azerbaijan Airlines said on Friday that it would also discontinue service to eight further Russian destinations.
Azerbaijan Airlines is halting services to Mineralnye Vody, Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa, Samara, Saratov, Nizhny Novgorod, and Vladikavkaz.