U.S.-Soviet Flights to Resume April 27
The Soviet state airline Aeroflot and the U.S. carrier Pan American World Airways will resume direct flights between New York and Moscow on April 27, Civil Aviation Minister Boris Bugayev said Friday.
The United States banned direct flights in September, 1983, after Soviet fighters destroyed a South Korean airliner that strayed into Soviet airspace in the Far East, killing 269 people.
The agreement to restore direct flights came during President Reagan’s summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Geneva last month.
Bugayev said an Aeroflot plane would fly to New York and a Pan Am airliner to Moscow on April 27. Two days later, passenger services would be opened to link Moscow and Washington, he told reporters.
Bugayev also said Aeroflot planned to open offices in the Philippines and Australia and talks were under way with Bolivia, Uruguay and Panama.
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