Russia extended overflight rights to Lufthansa's cargo planes until the end of February and said it received assurances of the carrier's readiness to move its regional hub to a Russian airport.
Lufthansa said earlier that Germany's transport minister had informed it that Russia had extended the overflight rights, but said the extension was not linked to a possible move of its cargo hub from Kazakhastan to Russia.
Russia stopped Lufthansa cargo planes from flying through its airspace at the end of October, saying the German carrier should move its regional cargo transit hub from Astana in Kazakhstan to Krasnoyarsk in Siberia, as previously agreed.
It later gave permission for flights until November 15.
Lufthansa Cargo uses Astana, its second-biggest cargo airport after Frankfurt, as a connecting point for flights to Southeast Asia. In 2006, it carried 2,542 flights to and from China, Japan, South Korea via Astana.
Russia's Transport Ministry said that it had received a letter from the general director of the German Transport Ministry's civil aviation department who reaffirmed Lufthansa Cargo's readiness to make transit landings in Krasnoyarsk for flights passing over Russia to Southeast Asia.
Lufthansa Cargo could move to Krasnoyarsk within six months after the end of the flight schedule period, starting from the date of completion of a technical upgrade of the airport in accordance with Category II of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation).
Vladimir Tasun, head of the ministry's civil aviation regulation department, said the modernisation of Krasnoyarsk airport would take about a year and cost up to US$20.39 million.
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