Aeroflot maintains Jakarta flights

Aeroflot maintains Jakarta flights

MOSCOW (Reuters): Russian flagship carrier Aeroflot said yesterday it would continue its new scheduled flights between Moscow and Jakarta despite unrest in the city.

Vice-president Valery Vdovenko told Reuters the company had no plans to suspend the weekly flights on a service launched only on April 1. "We see no reason to for now," he said.

Vdovenko said Aeroflot's weekly A-310 Airbus flight from the Indonesian capital had arrived in Moscow on Friday after leaving Jakarta with a four-hour delay.

The next flight from Moscow to Jakarta is scheduled for Wednesday but Vdovenko said Aeroflot was ready to lay on extra flights if it became necessary to evacuate Russian citizens.

Friday's flight carried a number of family members of Russian diplomats and businessmen based in Jakarta who had decided to leave Indonesia in view of the unrest.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday it had no immediate plans to evacuate the staff of its Jakarta embassy but advised Russians against visiting the country.