MINSK, 11 September (BelTA) – Minsk National Airport expects Russian airlines Aeroflot and Utair to resume flights to Minsk on 1 October, Director General of Minsk National Airport Vyacheslav Khoroneko told the Respublika newspaper, BelTA has learned.
Due to the pandemic, this spring Minsk National Airport saw the lowest number of flights in its history: it handled 4-6 flights a day, mostly charter flights with humanitarian aid or stranded travelers. “The airport started to revive in July. Apart from the airlines that continued working (Belavia and Air China), airlines from the United Arab Emirates, Poland, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Germany resumed regular flights. When some countries opened their borders, airlines launched charter flights to resorts, but they account for only 45% of the usual number. We are looking forward to welcoming back the Russian airlines Aeroflot and Utair. We hope that they will resume flights on 1 October,” Vyacheslav Khoroneko said.
According to him, the airport signed an agreement with the Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air. It will launch flights to Minsk once the borders are opened and the epidemiological situation improves. “We also invite other air carriers: we reached out to 55 airlines, in our letters we also described our coronavirus response measures,” Vyacheslav Khoroneko added.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the airport has stepped up work to prevent the spread of COVID-19. “We fitted check-in desks with protective screens, put dispensers with hand sanitizers everywhere, and treated the facilities with sanitizers every three hours. If we welcomed a plane from a region with unfavorable epidemiological situation, we disinfected it right upon arrival. We ensure safety with the help of various equipment and air recirculation systems. A robot for remote temperature screening bought with the help of the Great Stone industrial park operates in the arrival zone of international flights. Plans are in place to purchase such robots for every arrival zone,” he noted.
The airport has special means to treat aircraft and vehicles that transport passengers. Staff of the quarantine control service are on duty round the clock. “A laboratory that performs COVID-19 tests opened in the terminal building last week. It uses the method that detects antibodies. However, the results of this test are not enough for going abroad. In this case, a traveler needs to take the test that uses the polymerase chain reaction method and shows the presence of the virus. Plans are in place to introduce this testing method in the airport in the future,” Vyacheslav Khoroneko said.
