Ural Airlines is preparing to restart flights to a number of Asian countries, the first deputy head of the Russian airline, Kirill Skuratov, said in a conversation with TASS.

According to him, one of the first destinations will be the UAE. The first flight from Yekaterinburg to Dubai is planned for December 29 - while, according to the carrier’s announcement on Telegram, flights to the city from Moscow Domodedovo will start on December 27.

“Starting mid-January, we will resume several flights to a number of foreign countries, including to Azerbaijan, Armenia and Uzbekistan,” TASS quoted Skuratov as saying.

In addition, flights between Yekaterinburg and Istanbul are returning to the schedule. The company also expects to resume charter flights to Turkish resorts in the summer.

Currently, Ural Airlines operates foreign flights only to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the agency notes. Before this, Vedomosti reported that the Federal Air Transport Agency had suspended all flights of the carrier abroad due to problems with the rights to the aircraft.

The airline's fleet includes 52 medium-haul Airbus aircraft. Some of them have not been “cleared” of double registration in Russia and abroad, which does not allow their use in most foreign destinations.

Because of this, aviation authorities temporarily transferred permissions issued to Ural Airlines to a number of international destinations to other companies. Aeroflot, Azimut and Red Wings received additional permission to fly to Tashkent and Bukhara.