Kabul, Moscow to Be Connected by Air

The routine visit to Moscow of Afghan Minister of Air Transport and Tourism Mirwais Sadeq resulted in a basic agreement reached between the agency he heads and the State Civil Aviation service under the Russian transportation Ministry on the restoration of air traffic between Moscow and Kabul, the visiting minister's deputy, Sayed Mehdi Saidi said Friday.

According to him, the flights between Kabul and Moscow are going to be performed once a week by the Afghan national airline Ariana, either via Baku (Azerbaijan) or via Tashkent (Uzbekistan). Saidi pointed out that the issue of restoration of air traffic between the two capitals was initiated by the Afghan side. On behalf of his minister, Saidi expressed satisfaction with the agreements reached on the issue noting that "the Kabul-Moscow line will start functioning in 10 to 15 days unless there are hold-ups on the Russian part." The present-day Afghan civil aviation fleet includes 6 planes performing international flights: 3 Boeing-727 machines and 3 A-300s. The Russian-made An-24 belongs to the private airline company Bahtar and is only used for domestic flights.