Flights to and from Moscow's airports will be almost entirely restored over the next two days, Alexander Neradko, head of the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsia, said on Monday.
Severe freezing rain, which covered the entire territory of Central Russia over the weekend, has suspended many of the country's daily activities, causing serious power outages and disrupting the operations of public transportation and airports.
Neradko said that 189 flights were postponed at Moscow's largest airport of Domodedovo on Sunday, while 56 flights were postponed the same day at Sheremetyevo International Airport. The delays were caused by electricity outages and ice at Domodedovo and long delays were caused by de-icing aircraft at Sheremetevo.
"As of Monday morning, Domodedovo is operating almost normally," Neradko said.
Russia's air companies Aeroflot and S7Airlines also pledged to recover normal flight timetables over the next day or two.
The ice caused the delay of one-third of the scheduled flights from St. Petersburg to Moscow, a spokesperson for the St. Petersburg's airport of Pulkovo said.
The freezing rain temporarily left some 100,000 people from the Moscow region without power on Sunday and over 5,000 residents of the Nizhny Novgorod region are still waiting for restoration of electricity supplies.
Moscow's Deputy Mayor Pyotr Biruykov said that the city government would draw additional reserve forces for the clearance of snow and ice in the Russian capital if the companies now working on the problem fail to do their job properly.
However, Biryukov declined a proposal from St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matvienko to engage the homeless in cleaning up the city. "We won't agree to draw the homeless [into clearing the ice],"Biryukov said.
MOSCOW, December 27 (RIA Novosti)
