The government of Estonia has decided to lift restrictions on the number of airlines and routes in air communication with Ukraine and introduce the Open Skies policy, the press service of the Estonian government told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday, 19 May.
The agreement on the establishment of air traffic between the two countries was signed in 1993.
As of 27 May, the Estonian airline Nordic Aviation in conjunction with Adria Airways will start operating direct flights Tallinn-Odessa-Tallinn. The flights will be made every Saturday from Tallinn Lennart Meri Airport at 15:30, and from Odessa International Airport at 18:20 local time.
From 22 June to 24 August there will also be flights on Wednesdays. Flight duration is 2 hours 15 minutes.
Adria Airways also operates flights from Kyiv to Tallinn.
Ukraine has been in talks about a common air space with the European Union since December 2007. It is expected that the agreement will help reduce the prices of air tickets.
On 28 November 2013, the EU and Ukraine initialled the Common Aviation Area Agreement (Open Skies) in Vilnius. It was planned that the final agreement would be signed in 2014, but the issue was postponed due to a dispute concerning Gibraltar (the protraction with the signing of a treaty associated with the inconsistency of the position of Spain and the United Kingdom about its territorial jurisdiction).
To avoid interference that blocks the signing of the overarching treaty between Ukraine and the EU, Ukraine's Infrastructure Ministry decided to sign relevant agreements with each country individually.
Ukraine and the USA signed the Open Skies treaty in July 2015.