Open skies mode was implemented at Sochi airport. That means that all the restrictions on flights to Sochi performed by foreign carriers have been removed and the flights may be performed in compliance with fifth freedom traffic rights. Now foreign carriers are able to perform transit flights between third-party countries with a landing at the resort’s airport and board new passengers there, press-service of Sochi Administration reports.

«Federal authorities notified 19 countries about this possibility: Austria, Armenia, UK, Germany, Greece, Israel, India, Italy, China, Korea, Netherlands, USA, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Japan. If any airline decides to make use of this mode, it must notify Russian Ministry of Transport and specify the routes, aircraft types and planned frequency of flights», - the press-service added.

Negotiations with 20 carriers from Europe, Asia and India have already been held. Many of them are interested in launching flights to Sochi in the network of open skies mode. For example, Mahan Air (Iran) is ready to make the decision and start performing scheduled flights to Sochi from Teheran. The first flight on this route may be performed in July 2015. The flights will be performed once a week, since August – twice a week.

In November 2014 Pegasus (Turkey) should start operating additional scheduled flights to Sochi from Istanbul. In addition, Turkish Airlines, which performs four flights a week from Istanbul to Sochi may switch to daily flights on this route in the network of winter schedule, press-service of Basel Aero reports.

Decision to implement the open skies mode was made at a meeting held by Deputy Chairman of the Russian Government, Dmitry Kozak, in July 2014. This mode will remain in force over the next three seasons: winter 2014-2015, summer 2015 and winter 2015-2016, the Administration added.