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No fresh air under the wings for Arkhangelsk-Tromsø flight

Pskovavia has painted their logo on the nose of the plane.

Pskovavia has no plans to restart the flight from northern Russia to Tromsø. 

Location

“We have permission to fly. But it is not economically sustainable and the airline can’t take the commercial risk,” said Vadim Popovich, CEO of Pskovavia when talking to journalsits at St. Petersburg airport Pulovko last week.

Pskovavia closed down the interregional route from Arkhangelsk, via Murmansk, to Tromsø last autumn after being through a turbulent period. First, Norwegian civil aviation authorities no longer accepted that Pskovavia was flying on the license hold by Nordavia, then; after the license was transferred, Pskovavia said they needed economical support to reopen the route.

At a meeting in the Barents Regional Council in Umeå in March this year, representatives of the Arkhangelsk delegation told that Pskovavia would reopen the Tromsø flight in June, Severpost reported.

At the press-conference in St. Petersburg, Pskovavia CEO Popovich repeated the invitation to Troms authorities to subsidise the route. 

“Proposals for supporting the flight must be directed to the administration of the regions concerned. Currently, no such decisions are taken.”

The Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Tromsø route operated for nearly 20 years. 


The famous An-24 aircraft with Nordavia painted on the back of the plane has only domestic flights. Here from the airport in Murmansk. Photo: Thomas Nilsen