First international flight in 15 years takes off from Grozny

The first international flight in 15 years has taken off from an airport in Grozny, the capital of Russia's war-torn republic of Chechnya, carrying hundreds of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.

AFP - The first international flight in 15 years departed Monday from Chechnya, Russia's Muslim region rocked by two full-scale wars, carrying hundreds of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, its government said.

"Today's event is a big success for our people," Chechnya's strongman president Ramzan Kadyrov said at the Chechen capital Grozny's airport where he came to see off a Boeing-757 with the first 200 pilgrims.

"We all know what difficulties our pilgrims and those who see them off had to face in order to fly to Saudi Arabia," Kadyrov was quoted as saying in a statement.

"Hundreds of kilometers' worth of travel to airports in neighboring regions used to exhaust them not only physically but also psychologically."

A total of seven airplanes will transport some 2,000 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, while regular international flights would be launched "in the nearest future," the statement said.

The Russian government awarded the Grozny airport international status earlier this month, lifting all restrictions on international flights.

The flights have been made possible due to the ending of a decade-long anti-terror operation in Chechnya in April as authorities claim stability has returned to the region.

Chechnya, the site of two wars between separatist forces and Russia's central government after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, has been rocked by a string of attacks on human rights activists in the past months.

Date created : 2009-11-16