In the morning of the 28th of January, it was reported that eight flights, six of which were supposed to fly in the Moscow direction and the rest – to St. Petersburg, Krasnodar and Mineralnye Vody, were canceled from the Simferopol airport. Media informed that most of the flights belonged to the company Transaero and other flights – to Yakutia and Yamal airline companies.
“The Transport Minister” Anatoliy Tsurkin immediately made a statement that these flights were canceled because of the absence of demand: “The air carrier provided a line of additional flights but they were canceled because of a lack of ticket sales.” However, Tsurkin added that the company remained one flight. Although he didn’t specify which one it was.
Kryminform reported that according to their information, there were 5 flights from Simferopol to Moscow and by ones – to St. Petersburg, Krasnodar and Mineralnye Vody canceled. Six flights from Moscow, two – from St. Petersbur, by ones – from Krasnodar and Mineralnye Vody were canceled to Crimea.
However, as early as in the evening the company Transaero made a statement that the decision to cancel the flights was taken not today. “Information about some sudden one-time cancelation of eight Crimean Transaero flights within one day does not reflect the actual situation,” it was said in the public statement to Kryminform. Also it was added that the flight schedule was approved last year. According to it, there are only six flights a week (every day, except Wednesday) between Moscow and Simferopol. “So today, on Wednesday of January 28, according to the official schedule, the airline company doesn’t operate flights to Simferopol at all.”
There are really no flights operated Wednesdays for the next months on the Transaero company’s website. However, there are flights at any other days.
The Yakutia and Yamal companies, which flights were also canceled as it was reported by Kryminform, didn’t provide any explanations regarding the schedule of their flying activities. There are no flights to Simferopol operated Wednesdays in the schedule of the Yakutia airline company for winter 2014-2015. As for the flight schedule of Yamal, flights from Simferopol to St. Pete and vice-versa are operated even on Wednesdays.
The Simferopol airport doesn’t comment this situation on its official website. However, information on the online board this morning and evening are very different. In the morning, there was a status “Canceled” in front of the flights to St. Petersburg, Moscow and Mineralnye Vody. By evening these flights were removed from the board at all.
It is still a mystery – where can planes have got to? Nobody including the pseudoministr Tsurkin comments this mess-up. Instead, the Crimean “authority” only complicated the situation by announcing that now just one flight operates. But which one is it? One mystery is followed by other mystery. However, there is no wonder…
