VIENNA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th May, 2021) Austrian Airlines expressed interest in receiving a long-term permission from the Russian authorities to carry out flights from Vienna to Moscow using an alternative route bypassing Belarus, instead of the required day-by-day permission, the airline told Sputnik on Saturday.
"Austrian Airlines received permission from the Russian authorities to carry out a return flight from Vienna to Moscow using an alternative route on Saturday. We do not yet have the permission for our Sunday flight, but we are sure that we will receive it," the airline's spokeswoman said.
She noted that currently, the company has to receive permits every day, but, she stressed, "of course, it would be in our interests to have permission on a long-term basis."
On May 23, a Ryanair flight traveling from Greece to Lithuania had to make an emergency landing in Belarus' Minsk over a bomb threat, which turned out to be fake. One of its passengers, Roman Protasevich, the founder of a Telegram channel that Minsk has designated as extremist, was detained during the stopover at the airport along with Russian citizen Sofia Sapega.
The incident prompted outrage from the European Union, which recommended its airlines to avoid flying over Belarus.
