Russia to Resume Flights to China on July 20

Russia is set to resume scheduled flights en route from Moscow to Beijing and back to Moscow from July 20, Aeroflot announced on Wednesday.

"Aeroflot will resume scheduled flights en route Moscow - Beijing - Moscow from July 20. Flights will be made once per week on Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft," the airline said.

The flight from Moscow to Beijing will complete the route network of Aeroflot, which already includes flights to Shanghai and Guangzhou. Aeroflot also opened sales of tickets from Moscow to Chengdu, with flights to begin on July 22.

Russia will lift restrictions on crossing the country’s land border, which were introduced during the COVID-19 hike in 2020, starting from July 15.

“Following the results of the crisis centre’s discussion, a decision was made to lift the epidemic-related temporary restrictions on crossing the state border of the Russian Federation starting on July 15, 2022,” the statement said.

Last June, the Russian government decided to lift the restrictions on foreign citizens entering Moscow through the air and maritime checkpoints yet a number of restrictions on land arrivals continued to be in effect.

Russia introduced the restrictions at border crossings in March 2020 over the threat of coronavirus infection.

Last March, Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) resumed flights with eight countries after cancelling the COVID-19 flights ban.

The countries were Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Iran.