At the Potsdam Conference in August 1945, the victorious powers decided to temporarily place the northern part of the German province of East Prussia under Soviet administration. The question of which state it will be assigned to should be resolved later. But Moscow soon made it clear that it no longer wanted to relinquish control of the area.
Just two months later, dictator Stalin annexed what is now known as the Kaliningrad region. She became a perfectly normal part of vast Russia.
However, since the Baltic States declared their independence, it has been an exclave surrounded by Poland and Lithuania.
And since the West closed its airspace to Russian planes in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Kaliningrad has become even more isolated.
Russian airlines continue to fly to Kaliningrad. Aeroflot, Nordwind, Pobeda, S7, Smartavia, Ural Airlines – they all continue to fly to the city of 430,000 inhabitants.
However, they have to fly detours via the Baltic Sea. But that is no longer enough for the regional administration.
In order to attract new airlines, the Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsiya, at its request, has completely opened the region to foreign airlines for two years. (You can find explanations of the nine freedoms of the air here )
You may now benefit from the third, fourth, fifth and seventh freedom of the air. So they can offer as many flights as they want to Kaliningrad (3rd and 4th freedom).
However, foreign airlines can also fly from their home base to Kaliningrad and pick up travelers there and then transport them to a third country (5th freedom). And they are even allowed to fly from Kaliningrad to another country (7th freedom).
This will allow Kaliningrad-Khrabrovo Airport to offer a wider range of flights. In addition, one can attract new airlines, says Rosaviatsiya.
This article was written by Stefan Eiselin
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The original of this article “Russian exclave Kaliningrad now wants to attract foreign airlines” comes from aeroTelegraph.
