The Fijian authorities have denied a request by a Russian airliner to land in order to take home Russian nationals on April 27, the Russian Ministry of Communications blogged on its Telegram channel on Monday.

"The UTA9033 flight cannot take off from Fiji. The Fijian authorities did not allow the Russian airliner, which was going to evacuate Russian nationals from the island, to land. With this in mind, we are actively looking into other options for repatriating these Russian nationals. The UTA9033 flight will fly along the Denpasar-Bangkok-Surgut route on April 27," it said.

Earlier, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency disclosed plans for a Denpasar-Fiji-Denpasar-Bangkok-Surgut flight, it was put on the preliminary schedule for repatriation flights until April 27.