The tour operator Mouzenidis Travel, which specializes in offering trips to Greece, is now selling tickets for the flights operated by the Greek Astra Airlines from Yekaterinburg to Saloniki. About 30 flights are to be operated before the end of August 2012, and seven flights have already been fully sold out. However, Rosaviation reports that the air carrier has no permission to operate the said flights, Kommersant says.

A Rosaviation representative told the newspaper that the Saloniki-Yekaterinburg route was not stated in the aviation agreement signed by Greece and Russia.

‘This set of cities is not mentioned in the agreement, which means the company has no right to operate the flights not backed-up by any documentation; nor can it sell tickets for these flights. For these flights to be operated, the existing agreement has to be changed, which will take quite a while. What is more, the agreement signed by the two countries only allows Greek air carriers to operate one flight a week, so some problems arise here as well. We, on our part, are going to carry out the necessary checks,’ the representative said.