The aviation authorities of Ukraine and Turkey signed a deal Wednesday to increase the number of flights to and from both countries and add new destinations.

The weekly flights between Istanbul and Odessa have been doubled to 28, according to a statement from Turkey's General Directorate of Civil Aviation.

Both sides also agreed on including Aegean province of Izmir, Marmara region of the northwestern Bursa, holiday resorts Bodrum and Dalaman as new destinations in Turkey.

Ukrainian and Turkish citizens do not need visas to visit each others' countries, thanks to an agreement signed in March 2017. Over 1 million Ukrainian tourists visit Turkey every year, with seaside resorts serving as a major draw. </s> Baku. 31 March. REPORT.AZ/ Turkey takes part in Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) project and Ukraine may also join TANAP.

Report informs, Turkish Ambassador to Ukraine Yonet Can Tezel said in the forum entitled 'Capturing new markets', which held in Kiev.

According to the ambassador, construction of TANAP, which is a joint project between Azerbaijan and Turkey, will be completed in 2019.

Y.C.Tezel also mentioned that Ukrainian government is in more active position in the energy sector:

'On January 1 this year Russia put an embargo on goods from Turkey, but it did not affect the relations between Turkey and Ukraine. Turkish Airlines doubled flights to Ukrainian cities. Even tomorrow (eds. Today) Istanbul - Ivano - Frankovsk route will launch'.

Notably, large part of Ukraine's natural gas demand is met at the expense of Russia. </s> An armed pro-Russian separatist stands on part of the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane after it crashed near the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region, July 17, 2014. The Dutch are due to announce on Wednesday 28 September the long-awaited results of an investigation with Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine into the July 17, 2014 downing of the flight. REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it would allow U.S. airlines and codeshare partners to resume flights at three Ukrainian airports and over parts of the Black Sea, citing improved safety and security in parts of Ukraine.

The FAA had barred flights over the war zones of Crimea and the Ukraine in April 2014, and expanded prohibitions after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down while it flew over eastern Ukraine, killing nearly 300 people on board.

The FAA said in a notice filed on a government website it would maintain prohibitions on flights over the Crimea and parts of Ukraine.

The air safety agency said it would allow takeoffs and landings at Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia international airports in Ukraine, saying operations could be conducted with “minimal additional risk.”

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, prompting international condemnation and Western sanctions, but since then there have been no major outbreaks of violence on the peninsula.

The FAA said security and safety conditions “have sufficiently stabilized in certain regions of Ukraine” to allow for additional flight operations. There have been over two years of safe flight operations on Black Sea air routes by non-U.S. airlines, prompting the change, it said.

The FAA said it was allowing flights to the three additional Ukraine airports, including one serving Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, because it believed there was enough of a “buffer from the area of fighting and associated weapons capabilities.”

The rules, which are currently scheduled to last until October 2020, also apply to foreign airlines operating a U.S. airline codeshare flight. </s> WASHINGTON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it will allow U.S. airlines and code-share partners to resume flights at three Ukrainian airports and over parts of the Black Sea, citing improved safety and security in parts of Ukraine.

The FAA had barred flights over the war zones of the Crimea and Ukraine in April 2014, and expanded prohibitions after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down while it flew over eastern Ukraine, killing nearly 300 people on board.

The FAA said in a notice filed on a government website it would maintain prohibitions on flights over the Crimea and parts of Ukraine.

The air safety agency said it will allow takeoffs and landings at Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia international airports in Ukraine, saying operations could be conducted with "minimal additional risk." (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Bernadette Baum) </s> MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Putin also expressed satisfaction with the start of normalization of Russian-Turkish relations implying revival of the whole complex of cooperation in political, economic, humanitarian, scientific and other spheres.

"The Russian head of state expressed confidence that basing on the achieved results the countries will continue productive joint work on boosting bilateral ties, actively cooperate in solving urgent issues on the regional and international agenda in the interests of the two countries and in line with ensuring security and stability on the Eurasian continent," the statement said.

Russian-Turkish relations have deteriorated following the downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber over Syria by the Turkish Air Force. At the beginning of 2016, Russia imposed a number of restrictive measures, including a ban on charter flights, food and flowers imports.

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the Syrian government and armed opposition groups reached an agreement on a ceasefire on Syrian territory, taking effect at 00:00 on Friday. Russia and Turkey took the role of the ceasefire guarantors, but other countries may also be invited, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Ukraine and Turkey sign an agreement improving aviation co-operation.