Russia eyes new airline for Crimea flights

A Russian minister said on Wednesday the government was discussing the creation of a new airline to serve the Ukraine's annexed Crimean peninsula that would use domestic aircraft to avoid European sanctions.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin's comments came less than two weeks after Russian flag carrier Aeroflot's low-cost unit Dobrolyot was grounded because a European leasing company barred the use of Boeing aircraft due to EU sanctions.
Russia has been trying to revive tourism to the Black Sea region despite global condemnation of a Kremlin-backed military operation that saw Crimea break away from Kiev in March.
Rogozin tweeted that ministers discussed boosting production of new lines of Ilyushin aircraft that could operate in place of the US-built Boeing jets.
"We're discussing the possibility of expanding the production of Russian regional planes, in particular IL-114," Rogozin tweeted on his English-language account.
"On the agenda is also the issue of establishing an airline to ensure a regular air lift to Crimea using Russian aircraft."
The European sanctions are part of wide-ranging punitive steps imposed by Brussels and Washington against Russian state companies and individuals who form the core of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.
The West and Kiev accuse the Kremlin of arming and funding insurgents who have been battling government forces in Ukraine's heavily Russified southeast since April.
But Russia has brushed off the criticism. Putin was due to chair two top-level political meetings in Crimea -- a Russian Security Council meeting on Wednesday and extraordinary meeting of top lawmakers to discuss the Ukraine crisis the following day -- in defiance of Kiev's protests.
The suspension of Dobrolyot flights to Crimea -- a rugged mountainous resort destination popular since the Soviet era -- left many Russians reliant on a ferry link over the Kerch Strait.
The entire voyage from Moscow takes at least two days.
Crimea is currently being serviced by daily flights by S7 airline and Orenair -- another Aeroflot unit that operates Boeing aircraft.
Orenair picked up the bulk of Dobrolyot's routes to Crimea. It began selling tickets for flights of its main city of Simferopol on Wednesday morning.
Aeroflot's board of directors will decide on August 25 whether to transfer Dobrolyot's two Boeing jets to Orenair to supplement its fleet.